Does the fate of trash end the moment it hits the rubbish bin? Is there an “afterlife” for trash? People don’t usually think about this – and they don’t have to. With our general waste being cleared daily and recycled waste being cleared thrice weekly by Singapore’s 4 Public Waste Collectors (PWCs), we don’t see rubbish piling up and thus is not a cause of concern for us. But trash do have a fairly long “afterlife” journey, which will be illustrated below.
In words, the process is as follows:
- Recyclable waste goes into the blue recycling bins while non-recyclable waste is disposed of in the general waste bin.
- General waste are then sent to the 4 WTE incineration plants to be incinerated, and the ash produced to be transported to Semakau Landfill. The heat energy generated from incinerating trash is converted into electricity to power the homes of Singaporeans.
- Collected recyclable waste is tipped off in a tipping hall, and wheel loaders will load them onto a fast moving conveyor belt.
- At the primary separation station, workers manually sort the waste by removing bulky items and other non-recyclables that people dispose of into the recycling bins.
- The recyclable materials then undergo magnetic separation in which the machine picks up ferrous metals to be sent for recycling, while non-ferrous metals continue on the conveyor belt.
- Ballistic separation further separates the recyclables into 2D fractions such as paper, and 3D fractions such as bottles and tetra paks.
- The last manual sorting is meant to sift out recyclables that have been contaminated and thus cannot be recycled. About 40% of the recyclables collected in the blue recycling bins are contaminated. Contaminated recyclables similarly gets incinerated.
- Non-contaminated, true recyclables are compacted and compressed into bales for export overseas to be further recycled. Ultimately, trash is given a new life, and the recycling process continues.