Amount of Plastic Waste Produced in Past Five Years

1 Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) in each year of the past five years, how much plastic waste did Singapore produce; and (b) of this amount, how much were (i) incinerated (ii) recycled locally and (iii) exported to recyclers overseas respectively.

Mr Masagos Zulkifli B M M: Singapore generated 832,200 tonnes of plastic waste in 2013, 869,000 tonnes in 2014, 824,600 tonnes in 2015, 822,200 tonnes in 2016 and 815,200 tonnes in 2017.

Of the plastic waste generated, Singapore recycled 6% to 11% of it across the different years, with the rest being incinerated.

In 2017, about 4% of the plastics collected for recycling were processed in our local plastic recycling facilities. The rest are sorted and exported for recycling.