Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan said Singapore has aims to raise its recycling rate, from the current 60 per cent to 70 per cent, within the next 10 years.
Over the last 10 years, Singapore managed to increase its recycling rate by 20 per cent to the current 60 per cent, said Dr Balakrishnan.
Speaking on Saturday at the launch of Recycling Week in Tampines, Dr Balakrishnan said while Singapore has made significant progress in recycling in the past decade, more can still be done.
Dr Balakrishnan said commodity prices, materials and resources are becoming more scarce.
He added how Singapore reduces its dependence on them, and the way they are recycled, would be even more critical for the future.
Dr Balakrishnan highlighted ahead of the World Environment Day on Sunday, the importance of education and convenience to improve the recycling culture in Singapore.
“We need to make recycling more convenient and more productive for the ordinary man in the street, so it starts first with education,” he said.
“Second, we’ve got to make it more convenient, so having drop-boxes near our homes or near our offices will make a big difference to changing people’s behaviour.
“Specifically for Pasir Ris and Tampines, from next month onwards, we are aiming to have a recycling bin in every single HDB block, and this bin will be collected every single day.”
