SINGAPORE: These sorting machines in Tuas Bay do what many people in Singapore fall short on: sorting and emptying metal and plastic containers for recycling.
Every day, they take in around 1,200 large bags of flattened cans and bottles returned under the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) and send them on an industrial “roller coaster”.
Magnets separate some metal containers from the plastic ones, which are then sucked through pipes to another place where the labels are stripped.
The plastic containers are later further separated into four different types using infrared light.
Manual labour is not needed to sort the recyclables and discards around 40 per cent of contaminants, unlike other sorting facilities for the blue recycling bins.
The BCRS’ Counting and Sorting Facility at Tuas, which was officially launched on Sept 21, started operating in August.
Its operations could not have come at a better time as more labelled containers appear to be entering the market.
From the start of BCRS on April 1 to early August, 5.5 million containers were collected.
Between August and Sept 13, the solar-powered facility by waste collector Cora Environment and the scheme’s operator BCRS Ltd has collected around 27.5 million used bottles and cans – five times more than before.
It is located within Cora Environment’s material recovery centre, which also sorts and processes recyclables collected from the blue bins like paper, cardboard and other plastics before sending them off to recyclers.
Under BCRS, customers pay an extra 10 cents for each drink and get the money back via EZ-Link or DBS PayLah! when they deposit the used containers into a reverse vending machine. There are around 1,300 reverse vending machines islandwide.
Once fully operational from October, the BCRS is expected to recover more than one billion beverage containers each year and over 16,000 tonnes of material annually. Since the scheme’s launch, it has recovered around 553 tonnes.
Within the BCRS’ first year, the aim is to have 60 per cent of bottles and cans in the market returned for recycling. Within three years, the goal is to reach an 80 per cent return rate.
The scheme was launched to help raise Singapore’s household recycling rate, which reached an all-time low of 11 per cent in 2024 and 2025. Plastic recycling was at 4 per cent in 2025.
The blue bins, intended to collect a mix of recyclables, have been plagued with contamination rates of about 40 per cent since 2017. Segregating recyclables can improve their value, the authorities have said.
The 2,000 sq m Counting and Sorting Facility – roughly the size of two Olympic swimming pools – is the first in Singapore to sort six material types on a single automated line. They include aluminium, steel and PET.
So far, 55 per cent of the materials collected are plastics, while the remaining 45 per cent are metal.
The bags are coloured red, blue and green, based on the regions they were collected from. Red bags come from reverse vending machines in the west.
Artificial intelligence and overhead cameras identify and count the bags containing crushed containers, and robotic arms swing them onto slicers that break the bottom of the bags before releasing the contents into a heavy-duty storage bin called a screw bunker.
Containers are further compressed inside this bin. Any residual liquid that collects at the bottom is drained out, reducing the risk of contaminating the materials.
When the public returns the used bottles and cans, they must be empty but do not need to be rinsed, although that is encouraged. The facility thus has a metallic and liquorice-like odour.
Once the screw bunker releases the materials, they enter a “roller coaster” of pipes and conveyor belts that sort each material and bundle it before sending it to recyclers. Air-propelled vertical pipes reduce the facility’s footprint and minimise odour.
A magnetic separator attracts steel cans. The remaining containers travel through the pipes to a separating drum and wind sifter, which remove labels from the containers, further raising the materials’ purity. A rotating drum screen filters out bottle caps and rings.
An eddy current machine with rapidly changing magnetic fields then separates aluminium cans from the plastic containers.
Four types of plastic bottles remain: clear PET, coloured PET like the Mountain Dew bottles, HDPE, which holds milk and juice, and PP (polypropylene).
A plastic sorter machine identifies these individually using infrared rays, then compressed air shoots each container into its designated bin.
Sorted plastic and aluminium are compressed into bales and sold to recyclers. Revenue from recyclers funds BCRS, along with fees from drink producers and unredeemed 10-cent deposits.
BCRS Ltd told The Straits Times: “We are working with a panel of recyclers for the different materials. Due to commercial sensitivities, we will not be able to reveal the recyclers.” - Straits Times/ANN
