Deposit system brings recycling "boom" to streets

The refund system for beverage bottles and cans has been on trial basis for several months and will be officially implemented in Singapore on October 1 this year. Residents can be seen queuing up on the streets carrying bags of empty bottles and cans for recycling. The machine was returned with 1 dime. Although the amount was not large, it made people feel that "we can also make a little money while being environmentally friendly", which gave us a sense of accomplishment. However, since the system was implemented, online discussions have continued. Some beverage containers purchased locally were rejected by the machine because they did not have the specified labels printed on them. Some people even found that beverage bottles and cans from neighboring countries were also printed with local labels, raising questions. Official clarification: Only bottles and cans sold locally and meeting the conditions can be refunded.

In fact, the fundamental purpose of the refund system is to encourage everyone to process recyclable items together and not throw them away at will. If people are willing to recycle beverage containers without designated labels, that is a good thing in itself. But the problem is that the recycling machine is too "hard". As long as bottles and cans are detected to be non-compliant, they will be spit out immediately and rejected. As a result, it's not good to take it home or throw it into the trash can. It was originally intended to be environmentally friendly, but later it became ordinary garbage.

This is obviously contrary to the original intention of the system. The key to being environmentally friendly is reducing waste, not fussing over labels. The situation would improve if machines were more flexible. For example, when encountering "non-compliant" bottles and cans, the machine can give you a symbolic 5 cents as an encouragement for the enthusiasm for environmental protection; to say the least, even if it "only collects money but does not refund", the screen will display the sentence "Thank you for assisting in recycling, there is no refund for this bottle and can", I believe most people can accept it.

Since the refund system for beverage bottles and cans was launched in April this year, many people have used their brains to collect used bottles and cans everywhere, and then take them to recycling machines in exchange for deposits. According to reports, a middle-aged cleaner collected bottles and cans in exchange for nearly S$2,000, confirming the English proverb “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.

Passed by that day Yum House , witnessed a stooped old woman rummaging through the recycling bin for bottles and cans with "dime deposit" labels printed on them. A few days later, I saw a middle-aged woman carrying a bag and searching for discarded empty bottles and cans in a large trash can outside a supermarket near her home. The "bottle-picking craze" in the island nation is heating up, and it has also given birth to many modern waste pickers. There is money to be made, who wouldn’t want it? However, rummaging through garbage with bare hands is not only unsightly, but may also cause health hazards ( Source: Lianhe Zaobao ).