MORE residents in Canberra constituency in Admiralty estate will have recycling bins under every Housing Board block as part of a campaign to encourage residents to "think green".

Residents of 14 blocks in the area, opposite Sembawang MRT station, will be able to dump their recyclable rubbish in bins at void decks, compared to just four before.

The pilot project involving the blocks was launched yesterday by Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC Lim Wee Kiak, and is a collaboration between the National Environment Agency (NEA), Canberra constituency and SembWaste.

The items will be collected every Monday.

The project aims to find out whether convenient access can result in more residents recycling their rubbish.

Dr Lim told reporters: "I think one of the ways to improve it (the recycling rate) is to make recycling more convenient and the bins more accessible."

In Singapore, 56 per cent of rubbish collected from both recycling bins and rubbish chutes are recycled, said an NEA spokesman. The agency wants to increase this to 60 per cent by 2012 and to 70 per cent by 2030, he added.

NEA chief executive officer Andrew Tan said: "We hope that this effort paves the way for more innovative environmental initiatives."

Dr Lim said that door-todoor collection of rubbish for recycling is a good idea, but labour-intensive. He added that some residents also may not like to leave things in the corridor.

Housewife Yam Lee-San, 35, is encouraged by the additional bins. She said: "It's much more convenient. Previously, the nearest recycling bin was about 150m away."

Earlier, the arrangement was for five HDB blocks to share one bin, which is emptied every week.

Dr Lim has asked the National Development Ministry to consider including recycling chutes when building flats and to make it a building requirement in the future.

Dr Lim also hopes additional bins will solve the problem of overflowing bins.

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