Clean Public Toilets Campaign 2023 to include pilot toilet cleanliness module for primary school students

SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) on Tuesday (Nov 21) launched its annual Clean Public Toilets Campaign, with this iteration including a programme that will see primary school students cleaning toilets.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Baey Yam Keng launched the campaign in conjunction with the Public Hygiene Council (PHC), Restroom Association Singapore (RAS) and Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) at One Punggol Hawker Centre.

The campaign comes on the back of a Singapore Management University (SMU) study released on Nov 8 which found that coffee shop toilets were as dirty as they were three years ago, but that public hygiene standards at hawker centres had seen some improvement. 

The SMU study surveyed more than 1,000 toilets located in coffee shops and hawker centres and sought the views of 9,411 people. It found an unfavourable overall perception of public toilets. 

About 91.31 per cent of customers said toilets in hawker centres and coffee shops needed “major overhauling”, rating them as “dirty”. Even employees rated these toilets as dirty, with about 70 per cent rating the degree of improvement needed as “moderate”.

The study also found that only 6 per cent of respondents were optimistic about the efficacy of clean toilet campaigns. 

2023 CAMPAIGN

To kick off the campaign, Mr Baey stuck posters on walls and spoke to stallholders and members of the public about the importance of clean toilets. 

This year’s Clean Public Toilets Campaign has the theme “Are you nice when no one’s around? Do it right for everyone”.

NEA said that the theme “appeals to the concept of social consciousness and encourages the socially desirable actions of ‘Clean, Flush, Dry, Bin’ by public toilet users”.

“The campaign draws parallels to the practising of acts of kindness without reward and recognition, and nudges individuals to be more aware of their actions behind the closed doors of the toilet cubicle,” the agency said in a media release.

NEA will reach out to more than 2,000 premises, including coffee shops, hawker centres, parks, petrol stations and sports facilities, to publicise campaign messages. 

Speaking to the media at One Punggol Hawker Centre, Mr Baey said that the campaign is based on encouraging people to do the right thing even when they are not being watched. 

“All the years, the campaign has been basically building public responsibility that is in us to keep our toilets clean,” said Mr Baey, adding that operators and cleaning staff also had their roles to play.

When asked about the small number of people in the SMU study who felt optimistic about clean public toilet campaigns and how this year’s campaign was structured to make more people take it seriously, Mr Baey said that it was a “carrot and stick thing”.

“I think (the SMU study) gives us a good indicator of the state of play today. And hopefully, the results also remind us, I think especially coffee shops (are) not doing very well,” he added.

“I think (for) coffee shops, the challenge is they tend to be smaller scale, and they may not have the team of cleaners to be able to keep it, maintain it well throughout the day. But I think a lot still depends on the user’s mindset. How do they contribute to it, or how do they make it worse or better?”

EDUCATION “CRITICAL”

The PHC, which has been supporting the campaign since 2021, will pilot a toilet cleanliness module as part of the Buddy Clean Workshop programme for primary school students. 

The programme seeks to inculcate positive social values and norms on cleanliness amongst Primary 3 and 4 students, said NEA. 

“Through the (toilet cleanliness) module, students will get to pick up practical skills and knowledge on how to keep public spaces, including public toilets, clean,” it said. 

PHC chairman Andrew Khng told CNA that while the details have not been firmed up, the module will involve students cleaning school toilets, and will be introduced early next year.

“The adoption is to ensure that students pick up this habit of ... cleaning the toilet after their own use,” Mr Khng said. 

“From the PHC’s perspective, the actions are more than just theoretical. So the practical part of it, we’d also like to see that they adopt the cleaning of the toilets,” he said, adding that the PHC will be engaging schools and students before determining the extent of the practical portion.

The goal will be to roll the programme out to all primary schools as a regular module.

When asked about the findings of the SMU study on campaign efficacy, Mr Khng said that while campaigns create awareness, education is “critical”.

“That’s why we start from young,” he said, adding that improving cleanliness is “always (a) work in progress”.

SKM director Michelle Tay suggested that the poor showing of coffee shop toilets could be attributed to infrastructure. 

“If the toilet is not maintained properly, or if the systems there are not even up to date, the flush is not working, there is no toilet paper ... Those are already fixed structures that the users can’t control,” she said. 

“But what can we do as fellow toilet users? That’s the second part of it, which I think SKM feels the importance of. How can we all take ownership of our shared spaces and then encourage ... good behaviour?”

Meanwhile, the RAS gave an update on its Let’s Observe Ourselves (LOO) Campaign @ Hawker Centres, which was inaugurated in 2021 to improve cleanliness at hawker centre toilets. 

RAS president Ho Chee Kit said that the association had reached out to 80 hawker centres and distributed educational tissue packets to more than 25,000 members of the public, garnering more than 1,200 online pledges to keep hawker centre toilets clean.

RAS launched the LOO Campaign @ Coffee Shops on Nov 16. It will include training on toilet design and maintenance for staff, toilet audits and public engagement activities at coffee shops.

Madam Li Xiu Mei, who cleans four toilets within One Punggol Hawker Centre daily, has seen her share of bad behaviour.

She has encountered people who do not flush after defecating, those who wash their feet with bidets, staining floors with dirt, and, just last week, a user who left faeces around a toilet bowl.

When asked if she had any suggestions on how to make her job easier, the 56-year-old, who has nine years of experience as a cleaner, said in Mandarin: “One more person to help clean (would help). I’m used to working alone but if there was one more person to help me at the same time then my job would be easier.”