Effectiveness of Anti-littering Enforcement Actions and Possibility of Scaling Up

6 Mr Liang Eng Hwa asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether the high-rise anti-littering measures taken so far have been effective; (b) whether the surveillance devices being deployed can be scaled up; and (c) whether the agencies will look to new technologies and devices to enhance enforcement capabilities.

The Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment (Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan) (for the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment): NEA adopts a multi-pronged approach comprising enforcement, public education and community partnerships to deter high-rise litterbugs.

In 2020, NEA has stepped up enforcement against high-rise littering by increasing the number of surveillance camera deployments by over 50% as compared to 2019. NEA also partnered closely with Town Councils to enable more timely information-sharing to facilitate the investigation of high-rise littering offences. These measures enabled NEA to take more than 1,000 enforcement actions against high-rise litterbugs in 2020. NEA will continue to enhance its enforcement capabilities by keeping pace with developments in camera technology for high-rise littering surveillance.

Even as NEA steps up enforcement against high-rise littering, we must continue to cultivate social graciousness, good habits and a sense of collective responsibility to keep Singapore clean and safe. For this reason, NEA adopts complementary strategies such as strengthening community partnerships to raise awareness on the negative impacts of high-rise littering. In 2020, NEA trialled informative standees at public areas with persistent littering feedback and enforcement, to deter people from committing high-rise littering offences. NEA is also partnering Town Councils to install posters at HDB blocks, highlighting the environmental and social consequences of high-rise littering.

Through the collective efforts of all, we can uphold high standards of public cleanliness.

Mr Speaker: Mr Liang Eng Hwa.

Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Bukit Panjang): Thank you, Sir. While I appreciate the efforts by NEA over the years, there are obviously no visible improvements in the estate that we can see and have been monitoring. Items continue to be thrown out of windows, such as cigarette butts, and it is frequently still happening. Many Members have raised this in this House for many years. So, I would like to ask the Senior Minister of State whether this is a case where the deterrent effect is not working and the litterbugs think they can get away with it. If that is the case, then are surveillance and enforcement working to achieve that?

Secondly, I would like to ask whether NEA is seeing this littering problem as a steady state problem or is NEA committed to improving the situation to move the needle and using and harnessing technologies and a community effort to reduce high-rise littering?

Dr Amy Khor Lean Suan: Again, let me thank the Member for his questions and, in fact, comments.

First, with regard to the question about the deterrent effect of our enforcements, let me say that due to the nature of the offence – high-rise littering act – as well as the fact that our estates especially are very heavily built up, very dense, I think you would appreciate that it is not easy to identify and apprehend high-rise litterbugs. Despite this, a high-rise littering offence is a very serious offence. It affects our public health and, in fact, safety, too, and we take this seriously and we take firm enforcement action as far as is possible and practicable.

Over the years, we have stepped up our enforcement and surveillance capabilities. In fact, we leveraged technology and data analytics in order to apprehend high-rise litterbugs. And as I have noted, since last year, 2020, we have actually increased our camera deployments by more than 50%. We have also worked more closely with the Town Councils to enable more timely sharing of information in order to facilitate our investigations. In fact, we have worked to improve our work processes through data analytics so that we can actually shorten the waiting time for camera deployments for surveillance and that is the reason why we are able to increase the number of deployments of the cameras.

We have also worked to streamline our investigation procedures to shorten the investigation period as far as possible. In addition to that, of course, we will continue to look at using better camera technology in terms of better image resolution as well as detection capabilities and so on to be more effective. Let me also say that, in fact, we have, over the years, been increasing the penalties for high-rise litterbugs. So, for high-rise littering, the first offence is already a Court conviction, with a maximum of $2,000 fine and/or CWO. The third and subsequent offences are a maximum of $10,000 fine and/or CWO. What we are doing now is also to deter future high-rise litterbugs. For instance, when we have a camera capture of a high-rise littering act, we are working with Town Councils to put up standees in that affected block to inform residents that high-rise littering offences have been committed and have been captured by camera deployments.

Let me also add that when we look at the statistics, basically, the repeat offenders for high-rise littering acts actually are lower than for the general littering offences. So, although the number of offences per offender may be higher for high-rise littering because the camera will capture multiple acts of high-rise littering, but, for repeat offenders, actually, the percentage is lower. So, it does show that what we are doing does have a deterrent effect if we are able to identify and apprehend them.

So, steady state? No. As I have said earlier, at the end of the day, even as we step up enforcement and continue to actively monitor and try and apprehend with technology and so on, ultimately, what is important is we need the community, we need Singaporeans to cooperate. We need Singaporeans to cultivate social graciousness, good habits and collective responsibility and not to litter, in order to be able to keep Singapore clean and green.