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  • Every year, the world generates more than 2 billion tonnes of trash.

  • That's enough to fill over 800,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

  • About a third of the world's waste is being openly dumped or burned.

  • This is a challenge we've seen over and over, where users are unable to pay for use

  • where users are unable to pay for use of the system, where there's an affordability gap.

  • And by the year 2050, the amount of rubbish generated annually is expected to increase

  • to 3.4 billion tonnes.

  • As the rubbish piles up, no number of landfills and recycling programs

  • can keep pace with this growing problem.

  • So what's the solution?

  • The waste management process comprises the collection, treatment and disposal of waste.

  • Solid waste can come from several sources, mainly from residential and commercial properties,

  • and industrial facilities, such as medical, electronic and construction waste.

  • With COVID, overall we've seen medical waste increase about 40%.

  • It's often the poor that are the most affected by lack of waste management services,

  • whether it's because they're not receiving waste management services due to

  • where they're living or waste is being dumped by the communities.

  • Even as medical waste piles up, it's a tiny fraction of municipal solid waste.

  • Of the 2 billion tonnes of waste generated globally, 12% is plastic waste,

  • but it's dwarfed by food and organic matter, and paper & cardboard scraps.

  • Once all that trash is collected, there are 3 main ways it is treated and disposed of:

  • by burning the trash in an incinerator, using a landfill

  • or dumping it openly without any processing whatsoever.

  • While 33% of global waste end up directly at open dumps,

  • governments are increasingly recognizing that these sites are bad for the environment

  • and can be vectors for diseases.

  • Instead, they are opting for more sustainable ways to manage their waste, such as incinerators

  • and recycling programs.

  • Nowhere is this more pronounced than in densely populated Singapore,

  • which has nearly 8,000 people per km²,

  • more than 17 times that of India and 200 times that of the U.S.

  • Between 1970 and 2016, the amount of solid waste disposed in Singapore increased about

  • 7-fold as its population and economy grew.

  • Of the 7 million tonnes of waste generated in the country in 2019,

  • more than half were recycled.

  • The journey of a single piece of trash brings us to Tuas South Incineration Plant,

  • the largest waste incineration facility in Singapore to date.

  • Kan Kok Wah is the general manager of the plant,

  • one of four such facilities in the country which can convert waste into energy.

  • Waste is collected from industrial, commercial premises and household premises.

  • An average of about 600 trucks are coming to Tuas South Incineration Plant.

  • They will discharge the waste into the bunker.

  • Cranes will then grab and feed the waste into the incinerator.

  • The temperature in the furnace is about 850 – 1,000 degrees.

  • You will achieve a 90% reduction in terms of volume.

  • This will then help to conserve the space required for landfill.

  • Singapore is a very small country.

  • It's land-scarce.

  • So the need to conserve land is very critical for Singapore.

  • Along the way, we have magnetic separator.

  • Ferrous and non-ferrous metal will be recovered from the ash.

  • Ash will then be transported from the ash pit to another facility.

  • Pollutants produced during incineration are treated before being released into the atmosphere,

  • ensuring clean air is being discharged.

  • Water will be converted into steam from the energy recovered from the combustion of waste.

  • This water will be then converted into high temperature, high pressure steam

  • to run turbine generators.

  • This is to produce electricity power.

  • 20% is being consumed internally, with the rest being exported to the national grid.

  • The total power generated by the four waste-to-energy incineration plants in Singapore,

  • including Tuas South,

  • contributes about 2–3% to the national electricity demand in the country.

  • An upcoming waste-to-energy plant built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

  • and water treatment company Hyflux will be able to incinerate

  • 3,600 tonnes of waste per day while generating electricity to be self-sufficient

  • and providing excess power to the national grid.

  • How much waste is collected and managed in TSIP?

  • In 2019, about 1.08 million tonnes of waste is collected.

  • That's equivalent to about 3,000 tonnes of waste daily.

  • After the incineration process, my journey takes me on a ferry to the country's only

  • landfill located along the Singapore Strait, one of the busiest waterways in the world.

  • Semakau Landfill is an off-shore landfill enclosed by a 4.3-mile perimeter rock embankment,

  • which creates a sea space to fill with incinerated rubbish.

  • In operation since 1999 and costing nearly half a billion dollars,

  • the island is more than just a landfill.

  • Actually we are made up of two big islands called Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng and

  • these two are joined together to what we see here.

  • 350 hectares of Pulau Semakau Landfill.

  • A barge ferries more than 2,000 tonnes of waste between mainland Singapore

  • and Semakau Landfill daily, says Desmond Lee, general manager of the landfill.

  • We have big equipment such as the dump truck, excavators, etc.

  • These are equipment that we use daily, and you can hear-

  • What's going on there?

  • This barge actually comes from the Tuas Marine Transfer Station

  • from Tuas, travels 33 kilometres journey all the way here.

  • Tell me about how the ash is going to get transferred out.

  • There is what is called the long-arm excavator.

  • This excavator will grab the ash and as well as non-incinerable waste,

  • and drop into what we call the dump truck.

  • The trucks will then unload the ash into specific cells within the lagoon.

  • To prevent leaks and contamination of the sea water outside the rock bunds,

  • the perimeter is lined with impermeable membrane and a layer of marine clay.

  • As the water level within the lagoon increases with rainfall and the dumping of the ash,

  • the overflow is discharged into the open sea

  • after being treated at a wastewater treatment plant.

  • If you travel around Semakau, you'll see there's a lot of mangroves around,

  • and there are also beautiful corals.

  • This is a testimony to the absence of adverse impact from our operational landfill.

  • We also want to ensure the marine life and nature in this area continue to strive.

  • How filled is Semakau Landfill right now?

  • Based on the current waste generation, Semakau Landfill will be completely filled by 2035.

  • However, there are current plans to work together with the different government agencies, businesses

  • as well as communities to look into how we can extend the life of Semakau Landfill.

  • What lessons can we learn from Singapore's other previous landfills?

  • One key lesson that we learned is that it takes a long time to remediate the landfill.

  • And then there's also resources needed to commit to them

  • before the land can be remediated for other uses.

  • The other strategy we are also taking is looking at the possibilities

  • of recycling the incineration bottom ash,

  • which is now known as NEWSand,

  • and could be used for non-structural concrete, for example.

  • To date, NEWSand has been used to create footpaths and benches,

  • while tests are ongoing for its application in road construction projects.

  • Landfills are a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

  • In land-scarce Singapore, which is slightly smaller than New York City,

  • space is a luxury,

  • and it's a matter of time before Semakau landfill is full.

  • Singapore aims to reduce the waste going into Semakau Landfill by 30% by 2030

  • as part of its Zero Waste Masterplan.

  • The country also intends to develop new waste management facilities,

  • to meet the treatment needs of wastewater, sludge and even food waste,

  • ultimately improving the recycling rate in Singapore.

  • Despite the high rates of recycling among developed nations, high-income countries,

  • which account for 16% of the world's population, generate 34% of global waste.

  • Conversely, about 5% of the world's waste come from low-income countries,

  • even though they make up 9% of the world's population.

  • Notably, the U.S., Canada and Bermuda, all high-income nations in North America,

  • generate one of the highest average amount of waste per capita.

  • However, the trend is expected to reverse in the next few decades as low-income countries

  • experience economic growth and a population boom.

  • For over two decades, China was the dumping ground for nearly half of the world's scrap,

  • with much of it originating from developed countries such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

  • All that changed in 2018 when China imposed a blanket ban on 24 types of imported waste,

  • citing the need to protect its environment and public health.

  • The magnitude of the problem was laid bare when other countries in Southeast Asia also

  • started rejecting plastic waste from the rich, industrialized countries.

  • In 2019, the Philippines sent back containers of waste to Canada and South Korea,

  • while waste from Spain and Australia that were sent to Malaysia were similarly rejected.

  • Waste management is very expensive.

  • And it should not be looked at as being an economic activity to generate revenue,

  • but as a public service that requires financing.

  • Not just financing that is affordable for the population and for the country as such,

  • but also in terms of legislative environment and regulation, and monitoring and enforcement.

  • All of these pieces of the puzzle should be in place,

  • because at the end of the day as we have seen many times

  • there is always an easy way out, and that is to pollute the environment.

  • It takes years and concerted effort to switch the way we as a society behave

  • so that we increase the recyclability of our waste.

  • More companies are also applying environmental, social and corporate governance standards

  • to their operations.

  • While this is the latest trend in town, it remains to be seen if businesses can be both

  • ethical and profitable, benefitting stakeholders, society and the planet.

  • Citizens are key to changing the waste management system moving forward.

  • So, whether it's the day-to-day behaviour of reducing waste, being willing to be educated

  • and participate in recycling and recovery, being willing to pay for the services so that

  • the city can offer more management of waste in a proper way.

  • Each person generates nearly 2 pounds of trash daily,

  • so changing the throwaway culture will have a direct impact

  • on how the world looks like for future generations.

  • The journey to reduce, reuse and recycle then, begins with us.

Every year, the world generates more than 2 billion tonnes of trash.

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