Commentary: Is it time to use sticks to encourage residents to get serious about recycling?

SINGAPORE: Drinking water from a bottle made from recycled plastic recently made me feel unjustifiably righteous for a moment, until I realised that despite being recycled, it was still plastic and likely less virtuous than those new paper-like packets.

Thankfully, my holier-than-thou moment was restored after I deposited the plastic bottle into a recycling bin.

It feels good to recycle. Research has found a positive link between recycling and self-reported well-being and life satisfaction. Knowing that the bottle I had used was made from other plastic bottles and was now on a journey to (presumably) become yet another plastic bottle felt good to me - never mind the fact that we should be avoiding disposable plastic bottles in the first place.

However, recycling isn't always that straightforward. One only needs to look at the contents of the blue recycling bins scattered across Singapore’s housing estates to wonder: “What’s the point”.

Those bins, often filled with food and liquid waste, are not only unsightly, but also carry a high risk of contamination and can reduce our belief that the items we are depositing will be recycled. There is evidence that a lack of perceived control over being able to successfully recycle is a key barrier to recycling.

WHAT GOES WHERE?

One barrier to recycling is that not everyone knows what can and cannot be recycled. Can paper food packaging be recycled? How about tissue paper? Empty paint cans? Wine bottles? Straws? Bio-degradable plastic bags?

The answers to those are: No, no, yes, yes, no and no. How many did you get right?

Whether these (and many more) items belong in the blue recycling bins is not immediately obvious at all times.

Believing that you can successfully recycle, and knowing what goes into the blue recycling bin doesn’t necessarily mean you are motivated to do so.

My motivation to recycle stems from my mother, who is the most motivated recycler in my family. In our household, she is the one who will put aside the egg trays, rinse out the shampoo bottles, and flatten the cardboard boxes. She can be said to be a social model, someone who passes on information or attitudes via her actions (and nagging).

In light of data from the National Environment Agency (NEA) last month showing a decline in the overall recycling rate to 52 per cent last year, from 57 per cent in 2022 and 62 per cent over the last decade, we will need all the nagging (and more) to hit our national recycling goal of 70 per cent by 2030.

STICKS VS CARROTS

What are some solutions? A lack of information and knowledge may be remedied by prompts, education, and reminders. Such information can be delivered through various means such as posters, online resources, and face-to-face talks. There is also an online recycling search engine that can tell you if a certain item can be recycled.

While these efforts are important, they have long been applied and do not appear to drastically reduce contamination rates on their own.

So, how can we prevent individuals from treating the blue recycling bin as a rubbish bin?

Should “sticks” be applied here? As we’ve seen from the national tray return initiative, the threat of fines seems to be working well in making diners clean up after themselves at hawker centres, food courts and coffee shops. Similarly, plastic bag use at supermarkets has fallen dramatically since operators began charging customers for disposable carrier bags.

I believe a comprehensive approach is needed to bring down the high 40 per cent contamination rate. This includes penalising those who blatantly litter at the blue recycling bins. While we may not be able to catch all culprits, a firm stance would raise the perceived cost of contaminating recyclables.

However, a world full of sticks would be an unpleasant place. There is evidence that carrots can also effectively bring down the contamination rate.

A two-year recycling trial in Bishan and Sin Ming using “smart boxes” has a contamination rate of just 10 per cent - a significant difference from the 40 per cent average at the blue bins.

The smart boxes, operated by waste management company 800 Super, collect paper, plastic, aluminium, metal cans, old clothing and glass in separate bins. To use the boxes, residents must download an app and log in via a QR code. They are awarded points for recycling, which can be exchanged for supermarket vouchers.

While the vouchers are likely to be a draw for some people, this significant drop in contamination rate can perhaps also be attributed to a perceived reduction in contamination risk because of the controlled access to depositing items into the bins.

Yet another contributing factor might be the need to deposit recyclable items separately based on the type of material (“source-separated recycling”), as opposed to the commingled blue bins, where all recyclables, regardless of type, are disposed of in one bin.

Having to sort and separate items, using instructions and labels on the different bins, may help prevent contaminants from being deposited. The need to expend additional effort in sorting items could also foster a greater sense of ownership over the recycling process.

Theoretically, there are many ideas that can be attempted to encourage better recycling. There is a need for experimentation and testing.

The smart lockers mentioned above, as well as free Bloobox home recycling boxes and transparent recycling bin trial in selected HDB blocks, are but two examples of Singapore’s laudable efforts to continually try new ideas.

While our recycling rates have fallen, continued experimentation and testing should see us turn the corner.

Dr Victor Seah is Director, Behavioural Insights Centre of Excellence, Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).