Hawker centre tray return rate at 84%; table littering rules at coffee shops, food courts to start on Jan 1
SINGAPORE: More diners at hawker centres have been clearing their tables after their meals, with the tray return rate at such eateries more than doubling since February, said Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor on Thursday (Dec 30).
At the end of November, the average tray and crockery return rate at hawker centres was 84 per cent, up from 33 per cent when the Clean Tables campaign was first launched by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in February.
Thanking diners and cleaners for cleaning up after themselves and adapting to revised workflows respectively, Dr Khor also noted that coffee shop and food court operators have “done their part” by installing tray and crockery return infrastructure.
“Almost all” the food courts and coffee shops now have tray return infrastructure in place, compared with about 20 per cent of them in July, she added.
Of the 1,120 coffee shops and 220 food courts in Singapore, about 400 of them were given funding support under the Clean Table Support Scheme to defray part of the cost of buying new trays and installing the infrastructure, said Dr Khor.
“Most of the operators have actually opted for the typical tray and crockery return racks or trolleys. But there is another group who have thought of alternative workable solutions, such as using a pail and tub system due to space constraints faced by the premises,” she added.
“So actually we are happy that these operators have actually taken the initiative to think about innovative solutions that work for their premises.”
Coffee shop operators were initially concerned that patrons might find having to return their trays and crockery “troublesome”, causing them to lose business, said Dr Khor.
“But I think now most of the coffee shop operators realise that in fact this is helpful to the stallholders, the patrons as well as themselves. You’re able to turn over clean tables faster because now the cleaners can just focus on wiping and sanitising the tables and clearing and sorting the crockery at the designated tray return point,” she added.
When asked about whether the number of safe distancing ambassadors would decrease as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes and how this would affect enforcement, Dr Khor stressed that enforcement officers “cannot be around 24/7 at every corner”.
“What we really hope is that members of the public will see this as a habit that we all can nurture, and something that we can be proud of, to raise the standards of cleanliness and hygiene in all our public dining places, which will also help to mitigate, prevent the spread of infectious disease and give us a better and cleaner and safer environment,” she added.
The response to the enforcement of tray and crockery return has been “positive” despite some initial concerns from various stakeholders, said Dr Khor.
“But on the whole now ... various stakeholders, not just patrons but even stallholders and coffee shop operators, have actually shared that they have found that the environment is much cleaner, the bird nuisance, pest incidences is mitigated significantly, and they are happy that this has been rolled out,” she added.
“We will monitor and we will see in future if further actions need to be taken to address this minority, this small group who remain recalcitrant patrons, but at the moment response has been positive.”
