Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Waste Collection Lapses

Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Waste Collection Lapses by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment

Ms He Ting Ru: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) in the last 12 months, how many incidences of waste collection lapses by Sembwaste Pte Ltd as the public waste collector of City-Punggol and Clementi-Bukit Merah sectors have been logged with NEA; (b) what is the breakdown of the causes of these lapses; and (c) what measures are in place to minimise such lapses.

Answer:

1 SembWaste Pte Ltd is the appointed Public Waste Collector (PWC) serving the City-Punggol and Clementi-Bukit Merah sectors. In the last 12 months, there were no waste collection disruptions, which is defined as non-collection of refuse by the end of a scheduled collection day. However, there were temporary delays to waste collection in May 2024, due to a spike in the number of SembWaste's workers falling ill coinciding with a wave of COVID-19 infections at that time. As the delays did not result in any non-collection of refuse by the end of any given day, overall waste collection operations were not disrupted.

2 The National Environment Agency monitors the collection of waste by the PWCs and may intervene in the event of disruptions to waste collection.