‘Recycle N Save’ is a joint initiative by NEA and food conglomerate company, F&N, to encourage recycling through a convenient and rewarding way. Under this initiative, 50 smart Reverse Vending Machine (RVMs) were placed in public spaces such as shopping malls, sport hub, and food centres. On top of RVMs’ accessibility, incentives are provided to entice the public to deposit their used plastic drink bottles and aluminium drink cans. These smart machines are able to identify, sort and collect empty plastic bottles or cans before rewarding users based on the single-reward scheme or multi-reward scheme.
Under the single-reward scheme, users will receive a $0.20 FairPrice discount coupon for every 20 recyclables deposited. On the other hand, the multi-reward scheme provides users with non-monetary rewards for every 10 recyclables deposited. These rewards include:
- STAR$, which can be redeemed for eCapitaVouchers and eDeals on the CapitaStar App for shopping and dining.
- ActiveSG credits which can be used at all ActiveSG facilities.
- Sentosa Fun Pass Tokens which can be exchanged to for attraction passes, souvenirs or food and drinks at participating merchants on Sentosa, and
- Free rides on Anywheel bicycles
In my opinion, incentivizing the act of recycling serves as a short-term solution to encourage recycling. This is because this strategy is unlikely to impact people beyond increasing the public’s awareness on the issue. Once incentives are removed, the desired behaviour is likely to revert. Most of the time, incentives do not alter people’s attitudes and values towards recycling and both of which are strong predictors of behaviour. Hence, longer-term solutions require other strategies to complement incentivising recycling. However, the importance of raising awareness through incentivization is not to be undermined as raising public awareness is often the first step to social solutions.