Welcome!

Hi there!

Thank you for taking your time to visit Recycle Buds! You must have received the invitation we left you at your doorstep. 

As mentioned, we are a group of students from National University of Singapore (NUS), working on a modular assignment that aims to raise environmental awareness around our residential areas - yes, that means we get to reach out to friendly Bishan residents like yourself!!

Do read on, as we update this blog with relevant information pertaining to recycling efforts, as well as environmental awareness in general. We hope, that at the end of your stay with us at Recycle Buds, you will leave with a clearer picture of how everyone can shape - or perhaps to even start on - our recycling efforts so as to work towards a cleaner, greener future.

Please feel free to leave us with any feedback or queries that you might have, and we will look to get back to you ASAP.

Cheers,
Your Recycle Buddies (:

Where do our waste go?

Rubbish and waste is a part of our everyday lives.

But what happens to the waste that we get rid off?

Where does the waste go after you dump it into the rubbish chute? 

Does your family happen to separate your household waste into recyclables and non-recyclables? 

Well, here's a simple flow chart to depict the journey of our unwanted thrash after it leaves our hands!

Normal household waste is collected by the public waste collectors designated by NEA. The public waste collectors will sort the waste out at their facilities, differentiating the incinerable waste and non-incinerable waste. The incinerable waste will be incinerated at Singapore’s incineration plant located. Comparatively, the non-incinerable waste will be transported to the off-shore sanitary landfill known as Semakau landfill where the waste will be buried. 

There is a difference between what can or cannot be recycled. If your household separates your waste into recyclables/non-recyclables, you can place the recyclable items into the blue recycling bins provided by NEA. Every block has one! These recyclable waste are similarly collected and sorted by public waste collectors. They will be recycled and transformed into new products, some of which you might not tell the difference from non-recycled products!

So why waste these recyclable materials by letting them get incincerated? Put our 'rubbish' to good use and start doing our parts. Start recycling! :D

Waste Statistics in Singapore

As can be seen from the diagrams, waste is becoming a pertinent problem for Singapore. Here are some recent statistics regarding waste that will help to illustrate this point. As Singapore is becoming increasingly developed, naturally, its level of waste generated will increase. However as can be seen from the chart, the rate at which the waste is increasing is alarming (reaching 8 million tonnes a year in 2003!!!). 

This is due, not only to industrial waste, but also due to individual and household consumption, which is also rapidly on the rise. One redeeming factor is that we are also recycling more waste. However, this cannot keep up with the rate of waste increase, and more can be done to help recycling efforts.

Due to limited land space, Singapore cannot fully rely on landfill, and must send waste to its incineration plants. We will elaborate more on these processes later. Among the materials being disposed (bottom 2 charts), the type of material of waste also plays an important role. We would especially like to highlight plastics as the largest percentage of waste (at 24%). Plastics are non-biodegradable materials, and hence, have many severe impacts toward many living organisms, as well as the environment. We will also look into the specifics of the damaging effects of plastics.

Semakau Landfill

We know now that the bulk of the waste in Singapore gets incinerated and sent to Semakau landfill. But did you know that it is currently our one and only available landfill? 

The Semakau landfill is our very first offshore landfill and it is the only remaining landfill left in Singapore. It was created by enclosing 350 hectares of seaspace between 2 offshore islands – Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. The islanders were subsequently relocated to mainland Singapore. Our only remaining landfill has a declining lifespan. As of October 2014, it is only slated to last till 2035! That is well within the lifespan of only one generation! 

As such, there is much needed urgency in changing the way in which we dispose of our waste. We seek your cooperation to recycle as much as you can and reduce the amount of waste produced. The waste we look to get rid off individually in our daily lives, may not seem like much. The waste of a nation of millions, then, certainly poses a major threat to the longevity of the landfill. With a bit of effort on our parts, we can change all that. For every item we recycle, the ash volume of one less item gets dumped on Semakau. As a nation, we can make a difference.

Why should we care? The longevity of Semakau will have its impact on us if we keep up our current waste disposal habits. As of now, there are already consequences: the diversity of flora and fauna on the landfill. 

Due to the construction of the landfill, efforts were made to protect the marine ecosystem. In addition, 13 hectares of mangrove were replanted to replace those removed. Currently, wildlife continues to thrive, air and water quality remains good. But this will not be so for long. As the saying goes, "prevention is better than cure". Let us do our parts before it is too late!!

The Impact of Plastics

Unfortunately, there is less emphasis on plastic recycling in Singapore compared to some other countries, like Japan and some European countries. Thus, a large amount of plastic is not recycled and ends up in landfills or litter in the ocean. This is improper disposal of plastic waste. 

While most people feel that the improper disposal of plastic does not affect them, the truth is otherwise. These plastic products which go into the sea are deteriorated into harmful chemicals and microplastics. One of the toxic chemicals is BPA, and these can enter our water supply and hurt our bodies directly. 

Indirect consequences can also be felt. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic remnants. Fishes and other animals can eat these microplastics, which will be stored in their bodies. When we eat these fishes, if they are not prepared properly, we may also ingest some of these microplastics, which can then harm our bodies if taken in large amounts. For those fish-lovers out there, this may be of particular concern!! Thus, for the environment and our own sakes, it would be prudent to ensure our waste is recycled as well as possible.

What CAN/CANNOT Be Recycled?

Many of us do have the habit of recycling (or at least we attempt to), and that is indeed paramount. However, many times we face the problem of not knowing what we can or cannot place into the recycling bins. In such situations, we either:

1) Dump a non-recyclable into the recycling bin, making it harder for the workers at recycling facilities to sort them out

2) Dispose of a recyclable into the general waste bin precisely to avoid point (1), and end up adding to the waste in Semakau landfill

3) Actually get things right, and dispose of the recyclables/non-recyclables correctly

It is not hard to see why many of us fail to recycle correctly or as often as we would like to!

In this case, why continue guessing when we can find out what kind of rubbish goes where!

Recyclable materials can generally be classified into 4 groups: plastics, paper, metal, glass. These are some examples of the typical household items you may find yourself trying to dispose of, and that you can consider recycling in the future. We understand that at times it is hard to tell between what can and what cannot be recycled, so hopefully we can help shed some light on this matter:

It is important to know that recycling of a certain material requires the old product to be relatively pure - meaning it consists of only the material that can be melted or burned and remade into other products.

So composite materials - or materials that are made of different chemical substances - cannot be recycled, because the material that they are looking for is mixed with other substances and hard to separate.

This is the same for products that you may think is recyclable - such as light bulbs, pens, or even toys - because these things contact multiple materials like plastic with metal springs.

So what you can do is to look for alternate ways of reusing these such as the salvation army nearby - or even sending your e-waste down to Thomson CC.