- 1 day ago
With limited land and a growing population, Singapore faces unique challenges in waste management. But how are we able to transform waste management into a showcase of long-term planning?
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Watch more: https://www.asiaone.com/video
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00:01What rubbish?
00:11Let's talk about trash.
00:15Waste management plays a huge role in maintaining Singapore's reputation as a clean city.
00:21But were you aware that our waste also generates energy?
00:25Hey guys, so today I'm going to be taking a seat in a waste truck. Follow me.
00:35So how much waste can a truck like this carry?
00:38Approximately 10 tons which equates to 10,000 kilograms.
00:44How much is that in terms of like blocks or flats for example?
00:48That's about 40 blocks.
00:5040 blocks?
00:51Yeah.
00:52The routes are decided by our in-house route optimizer.
00:55So the optimizer will determine which truck goes where, who drives, what route to take,
01:01which direction to take, so on and so forth.
01:04I see, so they kind of determine which is the most efficient route.
01:07Yes, yes.
01:08Okay.
01:09So, can I take this truck for a spin?
01:12No, but you can take along.
01:14Okay.
01:15Okay.
01:18Hi.
01:19Hello.
01:20Okay, so we are in the waste removal truck and we're about to go on our first, to our first
01:28residential area.
01:29Yes.
01:30Okay, let's go.
01:33Are we reaching our first shop?
01:35Yes, correct.
01:36Okay.
01:41Has anything changed with like the technology with waste removal?
01:46Yes, like you can see right now.
01:48Yeah.
01:49We are using an EV truck, which is renewable for the environment.
01:54Yeah.
01:55So the carbon emissions are different for that.
01:56Correct.
01:57Yeah.
01:58Right.
01:59So last time you used to be a truck driver.
02:00Ah, a diesel truck.
02:01I see.
02:06Cora's energy from waste plant is one such facility where your trash goes to.
02:16Here, they do more with the waste than you might know.
02:20Oh, that's a lot of trash.
02:22Is everything here going to get incinerated?
02:24Yes, everything here is going to be incinerated.
02:27Waste that cannot be recycled are brought in here, incinerated at high temperature and
02:32transformed into energy.
02:33Oh, how is it transformed into energy?
02:35The heat from combustion would be harnessed and this heat energy will be transformed into
02:43steam in which we would send to our neighbouring plants for further processing.
02:49So is this something that all incineration plants do?
02:52Typically, yes.
02:54For our part of the plant, we incinerate waste and generate them into steam.
03:01For other plants, because there is no offtakers for steam, it would be a step down to produce electricity.
03:09Cora has the only privately owned and operated plant in Singapore.
03:14All the rest of the plants in Singapore are owned by NEA and operated by a service provider.
03:20So roughly how many days worth of trash has been accumulated here from what we see?
03:25From what we see here, it's about three to three and a half days of trash that we accumulate.
03:31So we have eight tipping doors here, number one to number eight, where the trucks that comes in will dispose their waste into the waste bunker.
03:44Then this is the view of the waste bunker control room.
03:50So this is a claw that basically goes in, pick up the rubbish that has just been tipped into the waste bunker.
03:57And then they'll put it at a designated area for stacking.
04:01And then later they'll be fed into the incinerator themselves.
04:04Okay.
04:05How many trucks come here in a day?
04:08Typically about 150 trucks.
04:10150 a day, wow.
04:12Based on 2024 numbers, we have about 18,000 tons of waste produced.
04:19So out of which, 50% are sent for incineration.
04:25There's about 750 fully loaded rubbish trucks every day.
04:33Wow.
04:34So you can imagine the amount of waste that Singapore generates.
04:38Yeah.
04:39And about 6 to 7% of this waste comes into a Quora energy from waste plant.
04:44So that's about 150 trucks.
04:46So this is an actual incineration.
04:56Right.
04:57Yeah.
04:58What we typically feed is at a rate of 24 tons per hour.
05:02So we'll basically throw in about 24 tons per hour of rubbish.
05:06And that will be incinerated in our grid system here.
05:11How much energy can be produced here?
05:14In 2024, last year, we produced 2,700 kJ of energy,
05:21which is equivalent to powering up 173,000 four-room flats.
05:27Wow.
05:33It's gross, obviously, looking at this.
05:35It's a very start reminder that we really do generate a lot of waste.
05:40I mean, on one hand, I'm not surprised.
05:43On the other hand, it's kind of really unpleasant to see how much trash there really is.
05:48And it's not even, I mean, it's not even new.
05:50So I've been recycling at home for a couple years now, and today I'm here to find out if I've been doing it right.
06:01Okay, so I've brought some of my recyclables from home, and I would like to find out if I'm doing it correctly.
06:12Yeah.
06:13Okay, so I have a bunch of things here.
06:16Plastic, etc.
06:18More plastic, aluminum, and a lot of cartons, and paper.
06:25So, can everything here be recycled?
06:29Yes, you did a good pick for recycling.
06:32All this stuff are recyclables.
06:34And of course, everything here has to be clean, right?
06:37Yes, of course.
06:38Because contamination does not allow us to do recycling.
06:42And if it gets mixed, let's say like I have one item that's mixed with everything, and it all goes into the bin, does it mean that the whole thing is boring?
06:47The whole thing will become a waste.
06:49Oh, okay.
06:50Right.
06:54We are currently at Cora's Material Recovery Facility.
06:59We collect and receive waste from National Recycling Program.
07:04Comes in here to recover and sort for recycling.
07:09It's obviously like a mix of things that are recyclable and not recyclable.
07:14So, how are these separated here in this facility?
07:16Alright, we go through our sorting line.
07:18We use machine and sorters to do the segregation before recycling.
07:26We can each day recycle about 30 tons.
07:2930 tons?
07:30From the waste that are coming into our plant.
07:32Okay.
07:33So, each truck can hold about 5 tons of recyclable waste.
07:40And I already see some things that are not recyclable.
07:47So, only 30% of the recyclable waste here can be recycled, right?
07:51But actually, why is that the case?
07:53All thrown into blue beans seems to be recycled.
07:57So, this is the mindset of people.
07:59So, when we say change this mindset in the near future,
08:03all these bulky stuff and contamination stuff will be avoided.
08:08But by doing so, we will increase the percentage for recycling.
08:13So, you think it's because of two things like contamination and because people are putting the things that cannot actually be recycled into the blue beans.
08:22Yes, precisely.
08:30What should I be looking out for now?
08:32Okay, today we will be scheduled to do cartons and pet bottles.
08:37Cartons and pet, but I think I saw a few already.
08:40Okay, got it.
08:41Pet bottle.
08:42Okay.
08:43So, here.
08:45Is that a carton?
08:46Carton.
08:47Which goes there?
08:48Carton.
08:49Look out for the pet bottle.
08:53Small, big, everything.
08:54Yes.
08:55What?
08:56Will that be considered a...
08:57No, that's glass.
08:58This one?
08:59No, no.
09:00Oh, it's plastic.
09:01This is not plastic.
09:02Oh.
09:03This one?
09:04Yes.
09:05It's a bit difficult.
09:06This is a pet bottle.
09:08Bottles.
09:09Bottles.
09:10Yes.
09:11Glass bottles.
09:12I cannot reach it in time.
09:14Wow, I think it really takes a lot of work to do this.
09:18You really have to lock in and focus because, like I was saying, it's not just about looking
09:25at the material.
09:26It's also about seeing whether it's clean enough to be recycled.
09:30See, some of it is not in the condition to be recycled.
09:33So, I really respect the workers here because they really have to lock in for extended periods
09:38of time.
09:39The other materials I'm picking up are going to go to a magnetic separator.
09:42So, that's one stage of it as well before it goes to another group of people to sort it out.
09:53Managing and reducing waste can be overwhelming, especially for a big organisation.
09:58So, how can data help them with that?
10:01So, SP is a pretty big school, right?
10:04How many students are enrolled here?
10:06Yeah, SP is pretty big and we have about 12,000 to 13,000 students full-time.
10:12On top of that, we also have about 1,300 staff.
10:15You know, that number of people surely generates quite a significant amount of waste, right?
10:20So, how much waste is produced here on this campus?
10:23Based on the last financial year, SP generated about 480,000 kilograms of waste.
10:31Out of this, 20% is actually what we call diverted or recycled.
10:36The top things that we recycle are horticultural waste, paper waste.
10:41So, are those the waste management approaches that SP has taken?
10:46So, diverting and recycling?
10:51Yes, that is one of the strategies but I think the overarching strategy and tactics that we have is actually data management.
10:58So, right from the onset, we do have a lot of data for us to work with.
11:03We do get data on a monthly basis from our vendors and that actually helps us to keep track of the amount of waste that we generate.
11:10At the same time, the amount of waste that we diverted or recycled are also tracked in those monthly data.
11:16That being said, you know, there's still one part that is still missing, which is a waste audit.
11:23So, what we did on the second-point approach to data management was to engage Cora environment to conduct waste audit for SP.
11:32A waste audit is essentially selecting a day.
11:36Typically, it will be a normal operational day so that we get a data that is representative of the campus operations.
11:43And we engage with our partner, in this case it's Cora environment.
11:47They will come in and collect all the waste that is generated for that particular day.
11:53And this waste audit actually helped us to come up with actionable insights, come up with data to tell us, you know, out of the general waste that were generated in SP, how much of it can be diverted.
12:07We also realised that there were a lot of contamination and that points towards a lot of awareness campaign, a lot of education of the SP community.
12:15So, what we have here is a lot of students from the Middle Arts and Design schools.
12:19So, what we did was really to empower them to come forward and come up with an educational campaign that will be rolled out pretty soon.
12:28So, this is how we made use of the waste audit data to help us in our waste management journey.
12:34What we have here is our food digester.
12:40There are many different kinds of food digester, but this is the one that we have here in SP.
12:46There are some limitations, right?
12:48If you look over here, there are some things that we can't throw it in.
12:51But by and large, you know, food that can be digested by our body can be thrown inside.
12:56So, what's inside here is tons and tons of bacteria that will break down the food and convert it into water.
13:03Okay, but why are we putting food in here to be converted into water?
13:07Well, I mean, the simple answer is really about, you know, the concept of diverting waste away from Pulau Semaka.
13:13So, imagine we don't do this.
13:15These food waste, you know, will end up being burned in the incinerator and they will end up in Pulau Semaka, which is getting filled by the days and that much years left.
13:25I'm assuming as can be.
13:26I must warn you it's going to smell, alright?
13:28Okay.
13:29Hold your breath.
13:30Okay.
13:31Alright, 30 seconds.
13:32Okay.
13:33Shall we?
13:34Yes.
13:35Let's go.
13:36Yeah.
13:37Yay.
13:38There we go.
13:39Thank you for contributing.
13:40Happy to.
13:41Wow, it smells, huh?
13:42Yeah.
13:43Okay.
13:44Thank you Risa for being so spotting.
13:45Yeah.
13:46Thanks for letting me try that.
13:47It didn't look like what I imagined it to look like inside.
13:48I don't know.
13:49Yeah.
13:50Can we become a more waste conscious society?
13:54It will take the effort of everyone, whether it is starting small from our homes or contributing as a community.
14:00Every bag of trash has to go somewhere.
14:01And in a country this small, we have to be mindful about what goes into our landfill.
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