How did Singapore solve its major waste problem?
This article is also available here in Spanish.

How did Singapore solve its major waste problem?

My list

Author | M. Martínez Euklidiadas

Singapore is a city-state obsessed with clean roads, recycling and the recovery of waste, which it reuses whenever it can. One of the most striking examples is the use of surplus ashes from incinerating non-recyclable waste to reduce its importation of sand in the land recovery policy, although, for obvious reasons, it is trying to minimize this incineration.

What were Singapore’s problems with waste and treating that waste?

During the 20th century, Singapore was a notably underdeveloped city-state, a classification that still remained until a long while after its independence from Malaysia in 1965. Singapore had two major problems:

  1. Pollution on its streets, which were dirty, creating the ideal climate for infestations of rodents and insects, the perfect breeding ground for diseases.
  2. Industrial pollution, leading the World Health Organization to declare it a polluted area in 1967. Water bodies were polluted and deforestation was unacceptable.

Singapore’s measures to tackle waste

In 1968, President Lee Kuan Yew began the obsessive, but necessary, campaign Keep Singapore Clean, by imposing fines on those who dirtied the city. Suddenly, the streets were clean, proving that the country’s street problem was not due to its high urban density, but rather due to lack of education.

singapore 2

Despite the major cleaning operations in the city-state, aimed at improving urban life (100% of its residents are urban), Singapore cannot resolve its forest problem. From 1819 to 1980 it lost 95% of its vegetation cover, and between that date and 2014, it destroyed 90% of its forests, killing off bird and plant species. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "There are no natural forests remaining on the island".

What it has managed to do is recirculate a considerable part of the industrial or industrialized waste it manages, becoming recycling experts. In 2012, the Singapore Green Plan led to a revolution in waste management, reducing waste that was not recoverable to a minimum and reusing the rest.

Singapore, the capital of recycling

In Singapore, everything that can be recycled is recycled. Inorganic waste is made into new materials used in industries such as the construction industry or as a base for reclaiming land (criticized for the environmental impact on the coast); organic waste is processed to extract biofuel and heat; mud and fats are used in different industries, including the energy industry for incineration; and waste from the construction industry is used to build or reclaim land from the sea.

Singapore has a global recycling rate of 47%, which is very low, but it has to be compared with the global figure of 13.5% published by the World Bank. Although part of the waste is incinerated or used to extend the land (not particularly sustainable), it leads the way in the reduction of waste in landfills, the scourge of a broken global waste system that has enormous environmental impacts.

Although all of the world’s countries have homework to do in terms of environmental matters —in this city, incineration plants and rewilding, among others— the truth is that Singapore is an example to be followed in terms of domestic and industrial recycling, and in terms of the treatment of waste. An example worth copying.

Images | Kirill Petropavlov, Hannah Sibayan

Related content

Recommended profiles for you

IB
Ignacio Bárez
Dynatrace
sales
GR
Guenter Reuscher
VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH
Senior Consultant for Sustainable Innovations
GB
Gabriela Bernardo Soares
Secretaria de Meio Ambiente
Chefe de Departamento
MC
Michael Ceopa
utp
KV
Kristi Villanueva
Tru-Matrix
ML
Mariano Lo Valvo
Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Mendoza
AE
Ahmad El Sarraff
A77 Inc.
GT
Gerald Turner
Enterprise Performance Management Intl. (Retired)
PA
Pranjal Agrawal
Medicaps University
Student
RD
Roberto Dumerauf
Atlas Group S.A.
Innovation Director
PP
Péter Pusztai
greeHill
Researcher
MG
María del Mar Gómez Zamora
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Chief if the CEI Smart Energy Campus
TS
Tayab Sarwar
Sher e Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and technology
Bachelors Student
FS
Feny Suharyono
Fixious Global Indonesia
To direct company purpose
HP
Howard PAKOSH
Piera Systems
Director, Sales & Business Development
SO
Sung Nam Oh
Soongsil University
Professor of University
MG
Mouhamed GUEYE
ECODISPLAY®
CEO
BK
Branka Knežević
Capital City Podgorica
Deputy Secretary in Secretariat for Urban Planning and Sustainable Development
KN
Katarzyna Nurzyńska
WSP Poland/ Warsaw University of Technology
PM
Parisa mirjalili
Tariat modares