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SINGAPORE: Every few weeks, 79-year-old Tan Mui Sng heads to the <\/span>reverse vending machine<\/span> at the void deck of her Serangoon housing block with a trolley and bags of empty containers in tow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The retiree returns dozens of containers each time, earning a few dollars in deposits \u2014 the result of hours spent scouring her neighbourhood for discarded drink cans and bottles.<\/span><\/p>\n While already a habitual collector before <\/span>the nationwide Beverage Container Return Scheme<\/span> (BCRS) was launched on Apr 1, the prospect of higher returns from reverse vending machines has spurred Mdm Tan to collect even more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The scheme, which is still in a transition period until Thursday (Oct 1), may not have altered her desire to recycle discarded cans and bottles, but it has certainly made her weekly efforts more profitable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “For this one, there’s much more money,” she said in Mandarin, adding that she used to earn S$0.50 (US$0.39) for every 1kg of containers she sold to the rag-and-bone man.<\/span><\/p>\n She has lost track of how often she has used the reverse vending machine, but estimated earning more than S$10 from returning containers.<\/span><\/p>\n Under the scheme, <\/strong>consumers have to pay a refundable 10-cent deposit on eligible beverage containers, comprising pre-packaged plastic or metal containers with volumes between 150ml and 3,000ml.<\/span><\/p>\n The deposit can be reclaimed by returning marked containers at one of around 1,300 Return Right reverse vending machines across Singapore.<\/span><\/p>\n On Sep 21, BCRS Ltd, the operator of the scheme, <\/span>reported that more than 33 million bottles and cans<\/span> had been collected by mid-September, <\/span>up from 5.5 million as of Aug 5<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The operator has yet to say what proportion of eligible containers sold have been returned \u2014 also known as the return rate.<\/span><\/p>\n Singapore consumes more than one billion beverage containers annually, according to the National Environment Agency (NEA).<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Adrian Kuah, Professor of Strategy and Sustainability at James Cook University said while 33 million returned containers may “sound small” compared with the more than one billion consumed annually, this was not an apples-to-apples comparison, given that the scheme is still in transition.<\/span><\/p>\n “More significant is the acceleration \u2014 from 5.5 million returns in early August to more than 33 million by mid-September \u2014 showing participation is increasing.”<\/span><\/p>\n The return rate would ultimately be a more meaningful measure of how well the scheme is working, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n While it may still be too soon to tell how overall recycling rates have changed with the scheme still in its infancy, there are signs that the 10-cent deposit is already influencing some behaviours.<\/span><\/p>\n