Recycling is the most often advertised of the 3Rs, so it's likely you've heard of it before. Recycling is changing old products into new ones so they can be resold.
Electrical and electronic items are increasingly being disposed as waste after use. These waste are posing an environmental problem as most of these waste products contain toxic chemicals. These chemicals can affect the environment and our health if they are incinerated or landfilled.
In Singapore, 796,000 tonnes of food waste was generated in 2013 and the recycling rate is only 13%. Food waste is usually processed as animal feed, and undergoes aerobic or anaerobic digestion to produce compost or energy.
In Singapore, we currently have facilities to support the recycling of the following materials; papers, plastics, metals and glass. These recyclables are collected and sent to Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) where they are sorted, baled and sent to local and overseas recycling plants.
Paper is one of the most common types of waste in Singapore with 1.26 million tonnes of paper waste generated in 2013 and only 54% of them are recycled. Most of this paper waste is sorted, baled and exported overseas for recycling as there are no paper recycling mills in Singapore.
