Rubbish island brings positives - 29th September 2023

Rubbish is a major issue for the city state of Singapore, given that last year its 6 million residents created 7.4 million tonnes of waste, of which just 57 percent was recycled.

The tiny country owns only one landfill site, Pulau Semakau, an island formed by joining two smaller islands together and surrounding them with a barrier. At the current rate of rubbish disposal, the site will have reached capacity by 2035. To extend this deadline, the government announced a 'zero waste' campaign in 2019, aiming to boost recycling by 70 percent. It also intends to decrease the quantity of waste transported to landfill by 30 percent. These two goals are set for the end of the decade, and Desmond Lee, one of the managers at the National Environment Agency (NEA), explains why.

Desmond Lee: "Because this is the only landfill in Singapore, that is due to the small area in Singapore, the small size of Singapore, and the competing land needs, it's difficult to find another place to, another location to replace this landfill. So, the, so it's imperative that we continue to use Semakau Landfill as long as possible to and if possible to extend its life beyond 2035."

Much of the non-recyclable rubbish is currently incinerated and the ashes later transferred to Semakau. Environmental action groups have strongly criticised this procedure, claiming air-pollution's a grave concern, as well as the possibility of chemicals from the waste sinking down into Semakau's soil and into the sea.

The NEA states their treatment systems clean the air before gases are released and that the areas where ashes are buried have a special membrane to prevent chemicals leaking down. As each area is packed with rubbish, it's covered in soil and planted with mangrove forests.

That provides such a rich, tropical home to a variety of birds and mammals that the island's now referred to as 'the Garbage of Eden'.