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  Channel NewsAsia 23 Sep 06
Singapore now allows drinks cartons to be recycled
By Wong Mun Wai

Singaporeans use some 500 tons of beverage cartons a year. Instead of disposing them as waste, residents can now include drinks cartons in their recycling bags - something that was not allowed before.

Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim announced this when launching Recycling Day on Saturday. And industry players from the food and beverage industry are leading the charge to recycle the cartons.

"The system is there, there are collectors, there are recycling mills, this product can be 100% reused for different ways. Now we have to get consumers interested enough to bring back the packages to get them recycled," said Peter Jhaveri, Managing Director of Tetra Pak Malaysia & Singapore.

Tetra Pak is part of a task force formed to develop a packaging agreement for Singapore, starting with the food and beverage industry.

The task force also includes the National Environment Agency, the Singapore Environment Council, the Packaging Council of Singapore and members of the business community.

Talking about the packaging agreement, Dr Yaacob said: "This would allow the food and beverage companies to voluntarily contribute to waste minimisation by designing packaging using less material, using recycled materials or using materials that can be easily recycled. I am happy to note that this agreement is likely to be finalised by the end of the year."

Over the past six years, the amount of waste recycled has increased by almost 10% to 49% in 2005. Singapore aims to raise the recycling rate to 60% by 2012.

There are measures to speed this up. For instance, to make recycling easier, the NEA has been working with town councils and waste collectors to provide a set of recycling bins for every five HDB blocks. The aim is to have 1,600 of these sets in place by next year. - CNA/ir
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