New laws regulating waste in Singapore to be introduced this year

Published

Mar 27 2019

Written By

I am a corporate lawyer with extensive experience in local and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and collaborations, and other general corporate matters.

In January 2019, the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources announced that a Zero Waste Masterplan ("Masterplan") will be published and implemented in the second-half of 2019, as part of Singapore's plan to make 2019 the "Year Towards Zero Waste". To effect this Masterplan, Senior Minister of State for Environment and Water Resources Dr Amy Khor announced in Parliament on 8 March 2019 that a new legislation will be tabled this year – the Resource Sustainability Bill ("Bill").

The Bill aims to support economic opportunities in innovative circular business models and the rising demand for resource recovery in Singapore and the region. A circular economy aspires to reuse and recycle resources for as long as possible - Singapore's current trend of linear use of its resource will mean that Semakau Landfill, Singapore's only landfill, will run out of space by 2035.

The Bill seeks to tackle the management of three critical waste streams: e-waste, packaging waste including plastics and food waste.

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