Tiong Bahru residents doing away with blue recycling bins permanently

SINGAPORE – Residents of Tiong Bahru's Seng Poh estate have decided to dump the familiar blue recycling bins for good.

Following a three-month pilot that removed all of its recycling bins because they were often contaminated and misused, the estate will not be reinstating the bins commonly seen in housing estates.

Instead, residents will take their recyclables to Tiong Bahru Community Centre (CC) and deposit them in a recycling machine launched on June 27.

During the pilot, which came under a resident-led initiative called Love Tiong Bahru, residents took their recyclables to the CC, where six collection drives were held fortnightly in partnership with the estate's appointed public waste collector, Cora Environment.

Conservationist and Tiong Bahru resident Kelvin Wang, who helped coordinate the initiative, said about 4,000kg of clean recyclables were collected over the six drives from April 11 to June 20. 

These included 1,500kg of cartons and mixed paper, 900kg of glass and 600kg of plastic.

He said the pilot had four goals: Reduce contamination in recycling, encourage residents to sort their recyclables, better understand residents' recycling habits, and explore long-term alternatives to the blue recycling bins for the estate.

Wang said that while some of the pilot's objectives have been met, others are a work in progress.

He said: "We reduced contamination among recyclables. The volunteers and residents learnt from each other, and the behaviour is a lot different when things are not anonymous."

The area's MP Foo Cexiang, who launched the recycling machine on June 27, said 1,200 households from 49 residential blocks can now dispose of their recyclables any time at the CC's newly installed machine, instead of waiting for the fortnightly collection drives.

Foo said they did away with about 30 of the blue bins after consulting residents, the town council and the National Environment Agency. That was because about 80 per cent of the bins became dumping spots for trash.

Those using the new recycling machine must sort their clean and dry recyclables into four categories – paper, metal, glass or plastic – before depositing them into the respective compartments.

Each compartment, which has a volume of 240 litres, opens for one minute to allow users to deposit their materials, and tells users the weight of what they have deposited.

When any of the compartments are 80 per cent full, Cora is notified so a worker can retrieve the materials for recycling.

Cora's group chief executive Lee Kok Kin said the volume of clean recyclables collected during the estate's six collection drives over three months is comparable to what would have been amassed when the blue bins were in place.

He added the machine collects user data such as their birth year and postal code for Cora to plan for future services.

Tiong Bahru's recycling initiative comes amid a review of 2030 targets for recycling and reducing waste in Singapore, following lacklustre recycling rates and a record high amount of trash being produced.

Singapore's overall recycling rate was 52 per cent in 2025, far shy of the 70 per cent goal by 2030, and lower than the 59 per cent when the target was set in 2019.

While the contamination rate for blue recycling bins has remained at about 40 per cent since 2017, data collected by Zero Waste SG, a non-governmental organisation, shows that deployments of the same machine in Queenstown and Pioneer had a contamination rate of five per cent or less.

Elsewhere, 100 collection machines have been deployed across schools.

A grant from the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment's SG Eco Fund covered 80 per cent of the total cost of installing and operating the machine at Tiong Bahru CC, which was not disclosed. 

The remainder was covered by the Tanjong Pagar-Tiong Bahru Citizens' Consultative Committee and Seng Poh Residents' Network.

Tiong Bahru CC is sponsoring the venue and electricity costs.

Alice Fong, 68, a Tiong Bahru resident of several decades, said: "It's become more inconvenient to recycle, but I can see why the bins were taken away. I've often observed people scavenging at recycling bins, or just throwing their food waste in."

Another resident, Jenifir Hunter, 47, said her family had to repeatedly tell off those who misused the blue bin in front of her block.

She said: "There is a lack of awareness among users, and it was very frustrating when our clean recyclables were contaminated. Now, it's not as easy to recycle, but the community centre is just two minutes away so we don't mind."

Wang added: "If demand is strong and outcomes remain positive, additional machines may be introduced in other parts of the estate."

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.