SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): From April 2025, bottled and canned drinks will cost 10 cents more, but shoppers will get the deposit back once they return the empty cans and plastic bottles for recycling.
About 400 supermarkets – those larger than 200sq m – will house return points, and most of them are likely to be smart reverse vending machines that guzzle up empty drink containers and dispense the money.
The 10-cent deposit will be placed on bottles and cans of all drink types between 150ml and 3 litres.
Drink manufacturers and importers will have a three-month transition period from April 1, 2025, to clear older stocks so that from July 1, 2025, all bottles and cans in the market will be labelled with a new logo and barcodes that will aid the return and help consumers identify packaged drinks under the scheme.
In Parliament on Tuesday (March 21), Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor outlined the upcoming beverage container return scheme – to officially begin in July 2025 – at the start of the debate on the changes to the Resource Sustainability Act.
As part of the proposed amendments to the Act, the House will also debate the minimum five cents plastic bag charge to be implemented at most supermarkets from July 2023. Together with the plastic bag charge, the 2025 return scheme is the latest effort to nudge consumers to recycle and reduce disposables.
The aim is to boost Singapore’s domestic recycling rate to 30 per cent by 2030, the figure was at 13 per cent – a 10-year low – in 2021.
Read more at shoppers-to-pay-10-cents-more-for-bottled-canned-drinks-from-april-2025-with-refund-on-returns
Source: The Star
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