🌏 trashtalks.earth · waste awareness

Hi. We're your trash.

You've met us before. Many times. You just never learned our names.

Foamy Boba ✦ ✦ Boxie Baggy ✦ Chip
meet the family

The reality check

Singapore reports a 50% recycling rate. That's mostly industrial and construction waste. For real everyday households — the number is very different.

11%
household recycling rate 2024
40%
blue bin items contaminated
5%
plastic recycling rate
2035
semakau landfill runs out

five characters · one shared fate

Every day you create all five of them.

They've been with you at the hawker centre, the bubble tea shop, after a Shopee delivery, at FairPrice, and in that drawer you haven't opened in two years.

Foamy Hawker Box Boba Bubble Tea Boxie Shopee Box Baggy Plastic Bag ✦ Chip Old Phone

their stories

Let them speak.

Five products. Five very different journeys. One shared destination.

01 / 05

Foamy
The Hawker Box
"I held your chicken rice for 8 minutes. I'll be here for the next 500 years. No pressure."
life journey
🏭Made from petroleum—
🍚Holds your food~8 min
🗑️General bininstant
🔥Incinerateddays later
🏝️Ash → Semakauforever
500+
years to break down
2.8M
hawker meals daily in SG
0%
curbside recyclable
✕ Not recyclable in blue bins

02 / 05

Boba
The Bubble Tea Cup
"You finished me in 12 minutes. I have approximately 450 years to think about that. I'm not upset. I'm just saying."
life journey
⚗️Polypropylene plastic—
🧋Brown sugar taro moment~12 min
🗑️General bin (liquid inside)instant
🔥Incinerateddays later
🏝️Ash → Semakauforever
450
years for the lid
2,000+
boba outlets in SG
4
different materials in one cup
~ Only if rinsed completely dry

Lid and straw are different plastics entirely — the cup is #5 PP but residue means it goes to incineration anyway.

✦ ✦

03 / 05

Boxie
The Shopee Box
"Good news: I am actually recyclable. Bad news: most of me ends up in general waste anyway. I don't take it personally. Actually, I do."
two possible lives
♻️Blue bin / karung guni → recycled into new paperif clean + dry ✓
🔥Wet / stained → incinerated → ash → Semakauif contaminated
2 mo
decompose in ideal conditions
✓
blue bin accepted
karung guni
old school — still works
✓ Flatten it. Keep it dry. Blue bin it.

04 / 05

Baggy
The Plastic Bag
"You used me for 12 minutes. I will still be here when your grandchildren's grandchildren's grandchildren are alive. Hi."
life journey
⛽Made from petroleum—
🛒Carries your groceries~12 min
🗑️Bin bag or general waste1–7 days
🔥Incinerateddays later
🏝️Ash → Semakauforever
$0.05
per bag since Jul 2023
20+ yrs
before it breaks down
✕ Not accepted in blue bins — clogs sorting machines
✦ ✦

05 / 05

Chip
The Old Smartphone
"I have real gold in me. Also lead, and lithium, and mercury. I am complicated. Please don't just throw me in a bin."
two very different endings
♻️E-waste bin → certified recycler → metals recoveredthe good path ✓
☠️General bin → incinerated → toxic ash → Semakauthe bad path
0.034g
real gold inside your phone
2021
SG e-waste EPR law passed
1M+
years for components to break down
✓ Drop-off at StarHub, M1, Harvey Norman, IKEA

where they all end up

In the end, the whole family comes here.

Singapore has one landfill. It opened in 1999. It doesn't take raw trash — it takes the ash from our incineration plants. Which is everything that doesn't get recycled.

It is more than half full. It runs out of space in 2035. There is no second landfill. Singapore is an island.

1999 — opened54% full today2035 — full
9
years remaining · as of 2026
2035
when it runs out
9 yrs
left from today
3.5km²
total area
1
singapore has one landfill. one.

10-year journey

What has Singapore been doing?

A decade of policy — and where we are today. Neutral, factual, chronological.

2015
Food Waste Reduction programme launched
NEA's first major public push on food waste. Singapore generated ~665,000 tonnes that year. Overall recycling rate: 61%.
Awareness
2019
Zero Waste Masterplan + Resource Sustainability Act
Singapore's biggest environmental policy year. The Masterplan set targets: cut waste to landfill 30% by 2030, raise domestic recycling to 30%. The Act (Oct 2019) created legal backbone for producer responsibility on e-waste, packaging, and food waste.
Legislation
2020
COVID-19 — recycling rate drops to 52%
Pandemic disrupted collection and reduced industrial activity. The headline recycling rate fell. The real story: households got worse at recycling during this period.
Impact
2021
E-waste EPR framework comes into effect
One of the first in Southeast Asia. Electronics producers legally required to collect and recycle e-waste via licensed channels. This is why Chip has somewhere to go.
Legislation
Jul 2023
Plastic bag charge at major supermarkets
NTUC FairPrice, Cold Storage, Giant, and Sheng Siong begin charging $0.05–$0.10 per bag. Wet markets and mama shops still exempt. BCRS amendment bill passes — a deposit return system is coming.
Consumer policy
2024
Household recycling hits a new low: 11%
Despite a decade of campaigns, Singapore's household recycling rate reaches its lowest recorded level. Plastic recycling drops to 5%. The gap between where we are and the 2030 target is nearly triple.
Reality check
1 April 2026 Just launched
🎉 Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) goes live
Singapore's first deposit return system. A $0.10 refundable deposit on all pre-packaged drinks in plastic bottles and metal cans (150ml–3L). Return the bottle at a reverse vending machine, get your $0.10 back. Originally planned for 2022, delayed multiple times. Now real. Target: 60% return rate by end 2026, 80% by 2029.
Live now

what you can actually do

Three things. Right now. In Singapore.

No lectures. The practical stuff that actually works.

♻️

Blue bin — but do it right

Paper, cardboard (dry!), glass bottles, metal cans, hard plastic bottles (#1 & #2). No food residue. No styrofoam. No soft plastics. 40% of blue bin content is currently contaminated and gets incinerated anyway.

📱

Help Chip find a better ending

StarHub, M1, and Singtel stores accept old phones. Harvey Norman, Courts, and IKEA take larger electronics. Community clubs have NEA e-waste bins. That phone in your drawer has gold in it — let someone recover it.

🧃

Claim your $0.10 back

From 1 April 2026, every plastic bottle and metal can has a 10-cent deposit. Return it to a reverse vending machine and get it back. Check bcrs.sg for the nearest return point.