Waste Management Infrastructure of Singapore

Discuss about the Singapore Government Focuses on Recycling.

Ever since the industrial synthetic polymer production started in 1940s, production, consumption, and waste generation of plastic have been increasing continuously. At the same time technology advancement also took place and started producing electronic waste as well. This waste generation is the root of many environmental issues like pollution, climate change etc. Being the global issue waste production and its disposal has been the focus of many researches in the past and still a big challenge for all. plastics and technology both are used in our daily live in different forms like covers, bags and containers, coating  and wiring, and other technology appliances like mobile phones, computers etc. Rapid advancement of technology has made the production rate of wastage high. This high rate production and continuous decreasing resources for disposal of this waste has been an important issue for the researchers to find some alternatives for this purpose. Today a total of 2.12 billion tonnes of waste is generated in year and this quantity is increasing continuously. Almost 99% of stuff we buy is trashed within a 6 month time period and that turns out to be the waste (World Waste Facts, 2018). Singapore is one of the highly urbanised and industrialised nations. Singapore is an island nation of total 697 square KM land area and 4.2 million populations. In the year 2017, Singapore alone had generated 7.70 million tonnes of solid waste which was significantly decreased from 7.81 million tonnes in 2016 nut the amount of waste recycled was 4.77 million tonnes in 2017 that was also decreased by 50,000 tonnes to 4.72 million tonnes in year 2016 (WDS, 2018). This makes an over-all increase in the total waste generation of the country (NEA, Waste-to-Energy (WTE) / Incineration Plants, 2018). This report includes a complete discussion about the waste management infrastructure of Singapore and efforts of the National University of Singapore along with their operations and benefits.

Public waste management systems in Singapore are quite impressive. Still the residents of the country are seems to be not weighting their responsibility when it comes for the recycling of household waste. The Asian city-state of land scarce has generated about 8,400 tonnes of solid waste and has only one landfill space for the disposal of this much waste that is an artificial island called Semakau, which was initially created in 1999 and then extended in 2015. The extension of island was enough to meet the country’s need for waste disposal till at least 2035 (NEA, Waste-to-Energy (WTE) / Incineration Plants, 2018).

Efforts of National University of Singapore

Having an effective solid waste management system Singapore is capable to recycle almost 60% of the total waste and then the remaining 40% is sent to the waste-to-energy plants. Here in these plants almost 90% of the coming waste is used for running the electricity generating turbines which makes only 2% of the total generated waste to be buried in the Semakau Landfill (Tan, 2018).

Although this is very effective management system but this does not involve any heroic environment contribution/effort from the residents of Singapore because the households recycled only 19% of their total waste generated in 2015 which was significantly decreased from 22% in 2010. This lack of contribution from the households of Singapore is not due to lack of awareness or any indifference. In most of the cases people in Singapore do not recycle their recyclable waste because they are not required to do so (Sile, 2016).

In Singapore solid waste management takes place at homes and businesses. Whole infrastructure of Singapore is designed to make it a country with zero waste. It seems to be impossible on considering the waste production of the country but somehow it is possible to reach near the goal (Shams, 2003). This whole idea was originally inspired by an award winning documentary “Trashed” featuring Jeremy Irons, the Oscar winning actor. In this documentary Jeremy goes around the world and shows the beautiful ecosystem which have been blighted by garbage, pollution, and filth. This inspiration makes the government to think about the project “Zero Waste” and in this order the government has designed an effective infrastructure for management of waste generated by the country (Cheam, 2016).

In this infrastructure before collecting the waste, recyclable items are sorted out and proceed for the recycling to prolong the age of recyclable material (Neo, 2010). Then after, the solid waste remaining is sent to the plants for waste to energy incineration. Incineration process reduces the volume of waste up to 90% and also produces steam that is used to run the electricity generating turbines. This makes the best disposal of waste as it is used as an alternative of fossil fuel for these turbines (NEA, Waste-to-Energy (WTE) / Incineration Plants, 2018).

After the incineration process the produced ash and other non-usable materials are sent to the Tuas Marine Transfer Station (TMTS) for barging to the Semakau Landfill which is the disposal island for the waste generated in Singapore (Lee, 2010).

At this point the government has started many programmes under the government bodies for the collection of wastage produced by the households and the businesses. This waste is collected using sorting of the recyclable waste and the non-recyclable materials for the convenience of recycling process and the WTE procedure (NEA, Waste Management, 2018).

Challenges of Waste Production and Disposal Globally

At present the waste disposal infrastructure of Singapore consisting of four waste-to-energy plants. These waste-to-energy plants are Tuas, Senoko, Tuas South and Keppel Seghers Tuas waste-to-energy plant. This infra also consists of the main disposal destination at Semakau Island as their main landfill destination.

KSTP was developed under the Design, Build, Own, and Operate (DBOO) model and commissioned in the year 2009 and it was developed to replace the first WTE plant of Singapore at Ulu Pandan. This first ever WTE plant in Ulu Pandan, was closed exactly after 30 days of successful operation of KSTP, in August 2009 (NEA, Waste-to-Energy (WTE) / Incineration Plants, 2018).

After the complete process of waste in WTEs the produced ash and other non-incinerable materials are then brought to this station. Here a unique facility which allows the solid waste to be unloaded in the long barges directly from the vehicles. Now these long barges covered and sent to a three hour long journey to the Semakau Landfill by the specially designed tugboats (NEA, Tuas Marine Transfer Station (SMTS), 2018)

At present Singapore’s only waste disposal landfill facility, Semakau Landfill was opened on 1 April 1999. This landfill covers 350 hectares of total area which is expected to be the facility available for the country’s need up to 2035 and may be beyond that too (ZWS, 2015). On an average the landfill received 2,189 tonnes of ash and other non-incinerable materials generated from the WTEs of the country. During the construction of this land fill some safety majors were taken in account to protect the marine environment ensuring the coral reefs along the Pulau Semakau’s western shore almost intact (NEA, Semakau Landfill, 2018).

National environment agency of Singapore is presently looking for the development of an integrated waste management facility to meet the future waste management need of the country and achieve the environmental sustainability for long term. Being the state of art flagship, this facility will be developed with some innovative solution for maximising both the energy and resource generation from the generated solid waste.

Responsible management of waste starts with conscious decision while buying the products in terms of need and their required quantity. This makes less waste production and that results in waste reduction, re-use, and recycling and these have same importance as that of less waste generation. Recycling is one of the best strategies for an effective waste management and National University of Singapore is recycling most of the waste generation in the country. The campus recycles almost all kinds of solid waste and still working on it. NUS campus is working for minimising the waste which includes recycling of Paper, Metal, Plastic, and electronic-waste, ink and toner cartridges. At NUS we can recycle glass, canteen waste, name box cards, pens also (NUS, Waste Management, 2018).

Recycling and Alternative Solutions for Waste Management

Since the management is university campus is very concern with the waste management most importantly for the recycling of the waste as it is a better way of waste management. And for this purpose the campus has a separate department for waste management which is responsible for the whole waste management system of the campus and works for new researches for different alternative of waste management. Since recycling is one of the beat alternative and it a process which requires the involvement of each individual the management motivates the university students for this noble cause. NUS recycles almost all kinds of solid waste generated from homes and businesses and for successful recycling of these solid waste products university takes many initiatives, itself and sometimes university students take these initiatives under the authority of university. These initiatives are different for different waste products and operated effectively with an effective and innovating reformation on regular basis. These initiatives include re-use and recycling of the waste products. Some of these initiatives have been discussed below.

Recycling bins can be found on several locations in the campus for the collection of recyclable metal, paper, and plastics. If there is a lack of bins on some locations students found then they can email the office and also they can call the OFM helpdesk to place a request for some additional bins at the identified location. In this process the management act fast and takes the essential action. Similarly, in different offices, in the campus also have these recyclable collecting bins to collect the waste paper generated from their daily work. Within the offices in campus these bins are used to collect only the non-confidential papers. For papers marked as “NUS restricted”, “NUS internal” or “NUS confidential”, they are required to be shredded before they are sent for recycle (NUS, Recycling of Paper, Metal and Plastics, 2018).

 Glass is the material which has most significance for the recycling as it is neither decomposable nor disposable. As a result it makes the disposal of glass very insignificant. Its life span is the most influencing factor for this impact. Therefore, the waste management of the university has started to think about the issue and motivates the campus students for its recycling. This makes some students to initiate their campaign with full support from the management side for the noble cause of recycling of glass.

In this initiative for the recycling of glass, glass form the food and beverages industries are acceptable at the bins located in Kent Vale Serviced Residences, Five different canteens in the campus and other various locations in the university campus. Other recyclable glass items are to be deposited in the blue recycling bins provided by the National Environment Agency. These blue bins are common in Singapore (NUS, Recycling of Glass, 2018).

Conclusion

For recycling the light bulbs NUS is partnering with the South West Community Development Council (SWCDC). South West initiative “Recycle-A-Bulb” is collaboration among General Electric Pt. Ltd., Global Lamp Recyclers Pt. Ltd., SWCDC, and the South West regional office of the National Environment Agency (NEA). This is the first ever recycling initiative for light bulb in Singapore where a new energy-efficient bulb is donated for every bulb recycled, to the needy and vulnerable people living in the South West District. In this initiative the NUS community can also contribute by dropping the off old light bulbs in the bins located nearby the campus. This act may cause for some help to the needy people by the policy of new energy efficient bulb donation to those needy people. This practice of recycling a bulb in the university campus has been ceased from 1 August 2017. The main cause of this action is mentioned by the management as the collection partner, “South West CDC”, is not administrating the service.

In the year 2013, Students Against Violation of the Earth (SAVE), a NUS student environmental group has initiated “Green Wardrobes” the first of its kind in environmental cum social clothes recycling campaigns in Singapore. This campaign provides conventional and permanent points at the university campus as well as at the Prince George’s Park Residences for green wardrobes are then sold to the vendors for recycling purpose in most of the developing countries (NUS, Reuse/Recycling of Clothes, 2018).

In the similar way NUSycle is also an initiative led by the students that was started for the university town residents but recently extended to the other participating colleges under the university. Aim of this initiative is to redistribute the used items that are collected from the outgoing students to the new incoming students in the university. These items collected from outgoing students include their old clothes and other personal belongings that can be reused by new students.

Then-NUS students, Goh Huishan, Ng Shi Han and Ng Yi Teng came together and initiated an campaign “Save That Pen” to recycle and donate the old used pens for the students who are in need. This campaign was also aimed to encourage the students to reuse their pens using refills. In the beginning the donated pens were collected from within the NUS community, then refilled those pens and passed to the underprivileged students in the nearby regions. After successful initiation this campaign has extended to beyond the campus and recycling bins for the collection now can also be found in the other universities and other public institutions (NUS, Recycling of Pens, 2018).

Collection of the recyclables is first step another step for recycling the material available is to sort out different items for different processes for the conventional approach for their best recycle or using the material for their best recycling use. This makes the process of recycling more effective and produces the most desirable product from the waste. This sorting is done on the basis of type of the material available in the trash for recycling for example, glass items are separated out for glass recycling and paper items will be sent to the paper recycling industry. In NUS all the campaigns for recycling provide different bins for different types of recyclables making their cost cut for sorting.

The sorting of different item is the second step of recycling system and the first step of processing the material for recycling. After this the sorted items sent to the respective industries for recycling process. These processes have their respective costs depending on the process. This is the most important cost responsible for the total cost of waste management or recycling. In recycling process, if any company can reduce this processing cost with any significant figure then the over-all cost can be cut with the same significance. The recycled products are priced such that it should not affect the market for recycled products as well as the cost of processing. The increase in the amount of recycled product is the key of making the recycling more cost-effective. In NUS most of the of the programmes running for the recycling of waste products get their recycling cost from the industries they supply the waste material. All the recyclable material collected in the campus is sold to the respective industries for the processing.

In this way NUS management for recycling the trash items, neither charge for the collection of material nor make a profitable price from the industries for the trash. This whole consideration makes the recycling management of NUS low cost effective in terms of benefits from recycling. But the noble cause of recycling is fulfilled by the management. This makes it worthy in terms of the cause for the environment but in cost effectiveness it is non-profitable. Therefore, funds for this noble cause for the environment are provided by the trustees of the university. The trustees of the university also motivate the management for recycling in the campus.

Conclusion

The above discussion in the report can be concluded as the recycling is one of the most cost effective alternatives in the solid waste management. And National University of Singapore is also playing a significant role in the waste management of the country with their innovative campaigns for the recycling within their campus. Although the recycling is a worthy cause in terms of environmental protection but the university is not making this more cost effective as it is not getting a profitable amount from this management. This concludes that the recycling in NUS is low cost effective as the amount gained from the trash material by selling this to the recycling industries is non-profitable and this makes the management to look for the external funds from the trustees of the university. A well designed programme and an effective use of the technology can make recycling more cost effective. Although recycling is not the cheapest alternative for the waste management but in some way making it much efficient in terms of cost, resource and cost is easier with technology and designed effective management is provided for this. This report concludes that the waste management scenario in Singapore as well as the National University of Singapore is much more advance but still it needs some modification to meet their needs in the future as the current waste management is sufficient till 2035 only. NUS has also played an important role in recycling for the university campus with some innovative campaigns initiating in the campus.

References

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