Recycling Bins Contaminated by Food Waste

Here's an article from "The Straits Times" on Friday 20 May 2016. It's about how about 35% of the recycled material collected from housing estate recycling bins in Singapore has to be discarded because it's contaminated by food waste.

So don't throw stuff like sweet wrappers or containers that have food material inside into recycling bins.

Some other stuff that we shouldn't be placed in the recycling bins around our housing estates are:
- mechanical pencils
- shoes
- tissue paper
- styrofoam disposable plastic cups and containers
- window class
- cassette tpes
- ceramic and porcelain items
- light bulbs, fluorescent lamps
- electronic waste (computers and home applicances)

Let's all do our part to increase the percentage of items that can be recycled.

 

Recycling Bins at Residential Estates

Here is one of the recycling bins located in my housing estate. In the past a few blocks shared one bin, and sometimes you had to walk a distance to reach the bin. Nowadays there's one for every block, so it's really convenient.

You can put:

- Glass bottles and jars

- Newspapers, magazines, books and paper packaging

- Plastic bags, plastic containers and bottles 

- Metal containers and cans

But do not throw:

- Light bulbs

- Food and liquids

- disposable items (such as plastic forks and styrofoam containers)

- Bulky items

The recycling bins in my estate are from Veolia, which is a waste management company. The bins are emptied 3 times a week. You can read more about the company at http://www.veolia-es.sg/our-services/residents/general-information.

The below image is taken from a newspaper sometime back about Singapore's recycling bins.

I have to say it that is definitely easier to recycle items in Singapore than it was 3-4 years back.

Printer Catridge Recycling

If you need to recycle your printer cartridges, you can bring them to libraries in Singapore and drop them off in the "Project Homecoming" recycling bins.

 
The below is taken from Canon's website:

What is Project Homecoming?
Project Homecoming is the first joint-brand initiative to bring ink and toner cartridges recycling to the community. Project Homecoming is now jointly-led by Canon and Epson, and supported by National Environment Agency and National Library Board. With this project, we aim to create awareness on the recycling of ink and toner cartridges, and to engage local communities to do their parts for our environment."

Do you accept cartridges from non-participating brands?
Project Homecoming accepts ink and toner cartridges from all participating and non-participating brands, all cartridges will be collected by our authorised recycler partner.

How does the cartridge recycling process work?
The used ink and toner cartridges will be dismantled into different components by our authorised recycler partner, Tes-AMM (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Plastic and metal, the main components of a cartridge, will be recycled into new plastic and metal products, thereby minimising waste and the need for new raw material. Non-recyclable parts will be properly incinerated. These recycling processes will help to minimise waste and pollution while, at the same time maximising resource recovery.

 

It's really great that we have such recycling bins conveniently located all around us!

(Source: http://www.canon.com.sg/ecoproject/recycling-program.html)

Green Living "The Eco Lifestyle Event"

Went to the Green Living "The Eco Lifestyle Event" held at Marina Bay Sands from 4 to 6 Sep 2015.

 Took a walk around but didn't stay long. Here are pics of some of the booths.

There weren't many people around (well at least not as many as you see at the IT fairs over here). Here's hoping that we can have more of such events and that it attracts more visitors in the future.

 

Update 17 Oct 15: Found this picture I took of the advert in the newspaper of the event. This is how I found out about it.

Newspaper Article - How recycling is wasteful

I read this article in The Straits Times (dated 11 Oct 2015) on recycling. The author argues that recycling costs more money then just using landfills. And that plastics aren't really worth recycling if you look at the dollar value.

I've scanned the article below: 

 

 

 

 

 

 Perhaps I should focus more on recycling paper and aluminum cans, instead of plastic bottles.

Recycling Bin in Mos Burger

I noticed this year that Mos Burger in Orchard Cineleisure shopping mall has a recycling bin for plastics. I guess that would mean only the covers from their cups and salad containers can be recycled?

I haven't seen such recycling bins in the other Mos Burger branches such as in Raffles Place or JEM at Jurong East.

 

However, I noticed that one of their staff was throwing in the entire cup and all the paper items (burger wrapper and tray paper) inside too. Well at least having such a bin is a small step towards recycling at fast food places.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi,

This is my little space to document how our little island of Singapore is doing it's part to protect the environment.

I hope to update this site, as regularly as possible, with pictures and observations of any green-related activities that I come across in my day to day life.