Jamus Lim Advocates for a National Initiative on Sustainable Living

Workers’ Party Member of Parliament, Associate Professor Jamus Lim, praised the National Environment Agency’s single-stream recycling initiative but expressed the need for a broader national educational effort to integrate sustainable practices into daily life.

In September, Jamus raised a parliamentary question to Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, asking whether studies had been conducted on the effectiveness of Singapore’s single-stream recycling system compared to multi-stream consumer-sorted approaches.

Fu responded by highlighting that Singapore’s recycling system has been standardized since 2011, making it easier for households to recycle without sorting items by type.

Revisiting the topic in a Facebook post, Lim pointed out examples from other countries that utilize multi-stream recycling systems. He shared, “Many countries, especially in Europe, sort items into categories like glass, metal, and paper. In Japan, some towns even have up to 45 different categories.”

While acknowledging the steps Singapore has taken, Lim believes there is still a long way to go for recycling and sustainable living to become ingrained in Singapore’s culture.

“My hope is that we reach a point where sorting and recycling become second nature, just as it is in other advanced economies,” Lim wrote, adding that recycling should be seen as a last resort after reducing and reusing.