On Sunday, November 3, several Earthlinkers visited Semakau Landfill, the world s only offshore ecological landfill. Situated 8km south of Singapore, the landfill has been built entirely upon sea space by enclosing Pulau Semakau and a small adjacent island (Pulau Sakeng) with a rock bound. It is an engineering feat designed to overcome Singapore s most pertinent constraint: land scarcity.
Earthlinkers took a tour of the landfill, driving along the outskirts to gain perspective on its operations. In their journey, they were prompt to observe that unlike other landfills, Semakau was clean and free of any odour. Semakau has achieved this via responsible disposal of waste: a layer of marine clay and an impermeable landfill liner, ensuring that no waste seeps into the environment.
In their journey, Earthlinkers also had the pleasure of viewing fish nurseries and observing a variety of flourishing wildlife within the landfill, features that significantly distinguish Semakau from any other landfill in the world. Indeed, the Semakau Landfill is the only active landfill that receives incinerated and industrial waste while supporting a thriving ecosystem, encompassing more than 700 types of plants and animals and several endangered species.
At the tail end of the visit, Semakau personnel also presented the audience with an account of the history of waste management within Singapore and its often-overlooked importance. More significantly, Earthlinkers were presented with the pressing challenge that the landfill faces, today: an escalating amount of waste (2000 tonnes per day) while its physical capacity to contain such wastecontinues at status quo.
The participants were urged to reduce, reuse, recycle in order to ensure that Semakau, the only space Singapore has to dispose of waste does not prematurely reach full capacity (which it is on track to, currently). Heading back to mainland Singapore, Ito Chicharu remarked, I think that is the most important message: for everyone to reduce, reuse, recycle to keep the landfill going. It is the only one Singapore has!