SINGAPORE — Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, attended the launch of the Bloobox initiative at Dazhong Primary School in Singapore on Sunday.
The initiative aims to encourage every household in Singapore to set up a home recycling corner and reduce the contamination rate in blue recycling bins.
The Blooboxes are foldable, washable, and reusable boxes that can be collected for free from vending machines at 140 locations, including community clubs and some bus interchanges, until 30 April.
The boxes were designed in collaboration with a team of students from the Singapore Institute of Technology and can hold up to 5kg of paper, plastic, metal, or glass recyclables, as well as e-waste.
The Bloobox initiative was announced in November last year with the aim of encouraging every household in Singapore to set up a home recycling corner, according to a National Environment Agency (NEA) press release.
The boxes were initially available to residents in the constituencies of Fengshan, Sembawang West, Tampines North, Yio Chu Kang, and Yuhua during the initiative’s pilot phase.
NEA’s deputy CEO Ram Bhaskar stressed the importance of encouraging every household to recycle to achieve Singapore’s national target of a 70% overall recycling rate by 2030. “We must get everyone into the habit of recycling at home if we want to achieve our national target of a 70% overall recycling rate by 2030,” he said.
“We should also recycle right so that we do not contaminate the recyclables and unwittingly undermine our recycling efforts. Each of us has a part to play to reduce waste, and together, we can make a difference.”
Dr Khor posted on her Facebook page on the launch. “By recycling right, we reduce the contamination rate in our blue recycling bins. When we recycle more and recycle right, we divert waste from the landfill, turn trash into treasure, reduce carbon emissions, and contribute to the circular economy,” she wrote in a post about the launch of the program.
NEA encouraged individuals to check the locations of the nearest vending machines and stock levels before heading out to collect the boxes.
They can do so on the BlooboxGoWhere website. Those collecting the boxes at vending machines can do so by scanning their NRIC or FIN cards, or their SingPass digital NRIC. They can also key in their NRIC number or FIN manually.
The initiative is part of Singapore’s ongoing efforts to make recycling convenient for households and raise awareness among residents on the benefits of recycling.
The NEA hopes that the Bloobox initiative will encourage individuals to recycle more and recycle right, reducing waste and helping Singapore achieve its recycling targets.
