Speech by Senior Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng - Keeping Singapore clean and safe, and enabling community action

Speech by Mr Baey Yam Keng, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment, at Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment’s Committtee of Supply (COS) Debate 2024, 4 March 2024

Keeping Singapore clean and safe, and enabling community action

Introduction

1 Mr Chairman, creating a Clean, Green and Resilient Shared Future for Singapore is a collective effort.

2 During our Forward SG engagements, Singaporeans acknowledged that the whole society needs to work together to ensure that Singapore remains a clean, green and safe home.

Keeping Singapore clean and safe

Shared Collective Responsibility

3 Our education efforts and campaigns over the years have paid off, and Singaporeans are generally civic-minded. However, we continue to observe some persistent issues, that require us to go beyond just public education.

4 Public hygiene remains a top priority for MSE. Ms Rahayu, Mr Liang Eng Hwa and Mr Murali Pillai have asked about MSE’s efforts to enhance cleanliness. Minister Fu announced earlier that MSE will designate 2024 as the Year of Public Hygiene. This year, we will be working more closely with the community and ramping up our efforts to address persistent pain points, such as littering hotspots and dirty public toilets. The pandemic may be over, but Singapore needs a clean environment to be well-prepared to tackle future public health threats.

5 Based on our cleanliness surveys, many still believe that the responsibility to keep Singapore clean lies with the Government and our “army of cleaners”. Our cleaners are already busy cleaning up natural litter, such as fallen leaves, and accidental litter, such as spillages. Let us not add to their heavy workload with intentional litter by leaving or throwing our litter for them to clean up after us.

Multi-pronged Approach to Cleanliness

6 To tackle ongoing and persistent issues, we adopt a multi-pronged approach. Legislation and enforcement are critical to help us tackle the inconsiderate behaviour of a small number of people who are not as socially responsible, and to shape social norms for the wider population.

7 Ms Nadia Samdin asked about the Tray Return Initiative. This was launched in 2013 to encourage diners to return their trays after their meals. However, the Tray and Crockery Return Rate remained low despite public education efforts. By commencing enforcement in September 2021, we managed to cement new social norms and increase the return rate from 35% to over 90% today.

8 To Ms Nadia’s query, tray return is a key measure that helps tackle bird nuisance issues at hawker centres. NEA currently works with stakeholders such as Hawkers’ Associations and cleaning contractors to clear used crockery promptly and implement proper food waste management. NEA, together with the Town Councils, has also implemented anti-bird measures such as netting at tray return racks. Bird control efforts are also carried out where necessary.

9 To Mr Gan Thiam Poh’s query, we similarly use both public education and enforcement to curb high-rise littering. While we continue to educate the public on the dangers of high-rise littering, offenders, including first-timers, are sent to court and receive stiffer financial penalties and Corrective Work Orders (CWOs).

10 In July 2023, we introduced the statutory presumption provision for littering from residential flats to hold the registered owners or tenants responsible. We also encourage residents to follow guidelines by HDB or Town Councils on proper placement of objects in open spaces. Any cases of potential killer litter will be referred to the police for investigation.

Managing Littering Hotspots

11 The number of feedback on ground littering from 2022 to 2023 has increased about 15% compared to the two years before the pandemic. To tackle littering hotspots, we will adopt a more targeted approach.

12 NEA will increase the frequency and scale of anti-littering enforcement blitzes, targeting hotspots that have higher offence rates and public feedback reports. This year, we plan to conduct around five times as many blitzes compared to 2023. These blitzes will be more visible by deploying uniformed officers to patrol these hotspots and putting up standees on the number of enforcement actions taken. We will also deploy non-uniformed officers to catch litterbugs.

13 Recalcitrant littering offenders will carry out CWO at high footfall areas like transport nodes, town centres and city locations. An average of around 500 CWOs are issued to offenders each year. They wear pink and yellow vests that clearly state ‘Corrective Work Order’ while picking up litter.

14 Furthermore, we will quadruple the deployment of CCTVs at hotspots, which include HDB estates. This will improve NEA’s remote surveillance capabilities, facilitate efficient deployment of resources by enabling investigations into public hygiene offences, as well as deter would-be offenders.

15 However, even if someone is caught on camera, we are unable to follow up with enforcement action if we cannot identify the person. NEA will work with community stakeholders to identify these offenders. If there are still no leads, NEA will explore putting up images of these offenders at the places where they had littered to seek the wider community’s assistance in identifying them.

16 We hope that this will invoke collective community ownership to keep the common spaces clean, and also deter potential litterbugs.

Tackling Unhygienic Public Toilets

17 Public toilets remain a bugbear of many Singaporeans. We have stepped up our enforcement efforts on unhygienic public toilets, including at food establishments. Since April 2020, first time offenders who fail to keep public toilets in their premises clean and in good working condition, are fined up to $400 instead of getting a warning letter. Implicated retail food businesses would also incur demerit points, and some have resulted in the suspension of licences.

18 Enforcement can only go so far so I agree with Ms Poh Li San and Ms Rahayu that users and the community need to be involved as well. We will continue to collaborate closely with our partners from the people and private sectors to address the problem of dirty public toilets holistically.

19 We will form a Public Toilets Taskforce to study and recommend solutions to improve the cleanliness of public toilets. Mr Andrew Khng, Chairman of the Public Hygiene Council (PHC) and I will co-chair this taskforce.

20 The taskforce will tap on the expertise of public sector agencies, town councils, premises managers, academia and trade and industry associations. The taskforce will one, examine measures for adoption of good public toilet designs; two, promote responsible use of public toilets; three, advocate responsibility amongst premises owners for toilet cleanliness and maintenance; and four, strengthen community partnership to promote cleanliness. The focus will be on toilets that consistently fare poorly in cleanliness surveys, such as those at coffeeshops and hawker centres.

Leveraging Technology

21 We will incorporate new technology to improve the efficiency of our cleaning and vector control operations.

22 First, we will trial the use of thermal imaging cameras for rat surveillance. NEA will share relevant footage and data with premises operators so that they can conduct targeted interventions to eliminate potential rat nesting grounds.

23 Second, we will explore the use of artificial intelligence-powered video analytics to supplement performance audits of contracted cleaning companies. This will be more productive than manual inspections in detecting cleaning lapses.

Rallying the Community

24 Many Singaporeans we engaged during the Forward SG conversations agreed that we cannot just rely on cleaners and cleaning technology to keep Singapore clean. Hence, MSE will further strengthen our partnerships with the community.

25 The PHC will launch the latest edition of the “Keep Singapore Clean” campaign next month to galvanise Singaporeans to do our part to uphold higher standards of hygiene and cleanliness. Last year, the PHC organised a workshop with residents and other community partners to brainstorm anti-littering interventions. As a follow-up, to realise one of the ideas, the PHC partnered with Nanyang Polytechnic to develop a Smart Bin prototype, which was subsequently tested within the neighbourhood and now will be scaled up.

26 NEA is also working together with residents from 21 private estates, such as Jalan Wajek in Bukit Timah, in an interesting initiative. Residents park their vehicles on just one side of the road on specified days to facilitate mechanical road sweepers cleaning the other side of the road. This achieved 50 to 80% of time savings compared to manual labour. NEA would like to double the number of private estates involved in this initiative. We look forward to more of such support from residents as we transition to using cleaning technology.

Strengthening Public Health Defences

27 To reduce public exposure to second-hand smoke, we currently prohibit smoking at more than 49,000 premises. Last month, NEA adjusted the Orchard Road No-Smoking Zone (ORNSZ) to include additional areas where smokers congregate. To Mr Louis Ng’s question, NEA will continue to monitor the situation and consult relevant stakeholders, before considering extension of non-smoking areas.

28 To Mr Gan’s query, indeed, smoking is prohibited at all covered areas including buildings and retail food establishments, smokers may congregate in adjacent spaces, where smoking is not prohibited. Stakeholders interested in setting up Designated Smoking Points (DSP) can refer to guidelines on NEA’s website, and seek NEA’s advice if needed. These should be at least 5m away from the premises boundary, and direct smokers away from the general public. The proliferation of DSPs needs to be carefully considered and balanced against the risk of inadvertently normalising smoking.

29 Mr Ng also asked about second-hand smoke within homes. In addition to working with other government agencies and the community to issue joint advisories, we will continue to encourage smokers to practise greater social responsibility and facilitate conversations between neighbours. Based on NEA’s data from 2018 to 2022, about 95% of feedback providers did not give further feedback on smoking in homes within a year after advisories were issued. We remain open to innovative and practical solutions to reduce public exposure to second-hand smoke.

30 Mr Chairman, I will now continue my speech in Mandarin.

31 傅海燕部长宣布，永续发展与环境部把今年定为“公共卫生之年”, 这表示我们对保障公共卫生及打造一个蓬勃的绿色家园的高度重视。我将进一步分享我国在保持环境清洁方面所做出的努力。通过“新加坡携手前进”运动，国人意识到绿化和保持新加坡环境清洁不能单靠清洁工人和科技，而是需要整体社会的努力。

32 我们继续多管齐下，加强对乱抛垃圾热点地区的管理，确保环境清洁 。我们将更频密地在热点地区进行更大规模的稽查行动。我们会安排乱丢垃圾的惯犯在人流量高的热点地区执行劳改令。为了捕捉垃圾虫，我们也将把安装在这些热点地区的闭路摄像机数量增加三倍。如果我们无法通过摄像证据辨识这些违例者，我们会和社区合作，在他们违例的邻里张贴垃圾虫的照片，向公众征求他们的身份资料。

Enabling community action

Go Green SG

33 Public engagement is also one of the main levers to shape social norms and individual behaviors.

34 Hence, MSE launched the inaugural Go Green SG campaign in 2023. More than 70,000 participants took part in over 300 activities organised by more than 160 partners from across the people, private and public sectors. There were a diverse slate of activities, including behind-the-scene tours, workshops and other community events to help participants develop a deeper appreciation of Singapore’s sustainability efforts.

35 Go Green SG will return this year, with a focus on public hygiene, and an expanded range of activities, to welcome more participants to build a cleaner and greener Singapore.

Empowering Youth Action

36 Our youths are deeply passionate about the environment and sustainability. It is essential to provide them with a better understanding of the relevant issues, so that they can contribute meaningfully to national policy discussions and efforts. Hence, the Government has several initiatives to strengthen our partnership with the youth community by raising awareness on climate issues and galvanising action amongst our youths.

37 Together with National Climate Change Secretariat and National Youth Council, MSE conducted an inaugural run of the Climate Youth Development Programme with 40 youths from July 2023 to January 2024.

38 They had a fireside chat with Minister Fu and gained deeper understanding of Singapore’s climate and sustainability considerations. Last year, they also participated in platforms such as Earthshot Prize Awards, Singapore International Energy Week, and COP28.

39 This allowed youths to engage climate change negotiators, policymakers, businesses and non-profit organisations, and develop a more nuanced understanding of climate and sustainability issues. To continue growing this community of young environmental advocates, we will be co-creating the second run together with participants from the inaugural cohort.

40 We recognise the importance of co-creating policies with our youths, who will be most impacted by climate change. We have been supporting a group of passionate youths with a keen interest to make a positive impact through their involvement in the #GreenHacks Youth Panel. The Panel is targeting to share its preliminary findings and recommendations with regard to sustainable consumption in the second half of this year.

41 We are heartened by the enthusiasm and contributions by our youths to shape a more sustainable future.

Conclusion

42 Mr Chairman, in conclusion, we hope to see the same level of enthusiasm, sense of ownership and shared responsibility to create a clean, green and sustainable home among Singaporeans of all ages. The Government does not have a monopoly over the best ideas. To better navigate the changing environment and social context, MSE will continue to enable and empower Singaporeans to be stewards of a clean, green and sustainable future.