MOVING TOWARDS ZERO WASTE NATION IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

With the rising resource consumption and waste generation, Singapore has set goals of reducing the amount of waste to landfill per capita per day by 30% and achieving 70% overall recycling rate by 2030 in the year 2019 to kickstart the vision of moving towards a zero-waste nation. Since then, many initiatives have been implemented to improve the current waste management. Therefore, it is essential to determine the effectiveness of the initiatives implemented to improve to achieve the goals.

However, there is a lack of research on the waste management initiatives in Singapore, especially in terms of the perspective of consumers. Thus, this paper aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of the initiatives through the analysis of data obtained from surveys and sustainability reports, thereby proposing recommendations to better achieve the goals.

The findings indicate that while businesses are making some effort in their waste management and slight improvement can be noticed, consumers are inactive in their waste management despite the knowledge of the 5Rs approach. This could be due to the barriers in waste management such as not having a habit and time consumption in waste management. Additionally, rewarding incentives and the provision of different recycling bins are considered effective initiatives that motivate consumers to practice waste management. However, these initiatives carry implications for achieving long-term zero-waste management and pose issues related to improper recycling practices. Therefore, improvement in initiatives is necessary to attain a zero-waste nation in Singapore in which smart recycling bins and convenient waste management are suggested.