Recycling bins, better-designed vehicles among improvements in waste collection services
We thank Ms Meiliana Darmawan for her letter “Will rise in waste collection fee mean a better service?” (Nov 15). Waste collection services are provided by public-waste collectors, which are privately owned companies.
They are awarded contracts by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to serve Singapore’s various geographical sectors through an open-tender system involving competitive bidding. Besides the fees tendered, bids are evaluated for the services offered beyond the minimum requirements specified.
As part of the NEA’s efforts to improve collection and recycling services, the waste collectors now provide each public apartment block and landed home with a recycling bin.
They have deployed new and better designed refuse collection vehicles to render quality services and improve productivity. Garden waste is also separately collected from landed homes and recycled.
To moderate fee increases, the nine waste collection sectors are being consolidated into six larger sectors to help the companies reap cost savings from economies of scale and better utilisation of resources. The NEA has also been working closely with the industry to explore technology enablers and other means to increase efficiency in the waste collection process.
