As part of Singapore’s zero waste efforts, canned and bottled drinks are set to cost S$0.10 more under a new scheme.
Residents, however, can get their money back if they recycle their beverage containers.
Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment announced the beverage container return scheme in Parliament on Tuesday (21 Mar).
The scheme is slated to commence from Apr 2025 and will be fully implemented by end-June that same year.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday (21 Mar), Dr Khor said the scheme is meant to address packaging waste in Singapore as well as promote efforts to reuse and recycle.
Source: MCI Singapore on YouTube
In a press release issued on the same day, National Environment Agency (NEA) stated that the proposed scheme will introduce a S$0.10 “refundable deposit” to all pre-packaged beverages.
These include drinks in plastic bottles and metal cans, ranging from 150 litres to three litres.
Members of the public can identify products under the scheme through a deposit mark and barcode.
After purchasing and consuming the drink, customers can return the containers for their refund at any designated return points.
Source: National Environment Agency (NEA) on Facebook, for illustration purposes only.
Although the locations have yet to be specified, NEA said it’ll be mandatory for “larger supermarkets” — with floor areas exceeding 200 square metres — to have such return points.
Producers will start supplying the labelled products from 1 Apr 2025, following which retailers will have a three-month “transitionary period” till 30 Jun 2025 to clear old unlabelled stocks.
The scheme is slated to be fully implemented on 1 Jul 2025.
The beverage container return scheme was first recommended in 2019 by a citizen’s workgroup.
Since then, NEA and the Ministry of Sustainability and Environment (MSE) have worked to develop the scheme, carrying out “extensive engagement” with parties from the industry.
In September 2022, NEA conducted a 1.5-month public consultation on the proposed scheme.
The scheme was originally set to take effect in mid-2024 but has been postponed to April 2025 after producers requested more time to implement the initiative.
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Featured image adapted from Google Maps, for illustration purposes only.
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