Local services / Recycling
The most common recycling failure isn’t “people don’t recycle”—it’s contamination: food, liquids, and dirty packaging thrown into the blue bin. This page gives newcomers a conservative decision table for blue-bin recycling, e-waste drop-offs, and bulky disposal routes.
| Item | Where | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Clean paper / plastic / metal / glass (no food residue) | Blue recycling bin (commingled) | Empty residue; quick rinse if needed. No liquids/oily waste. |
| Packaging with food residue, oil, or liquids | General waste (not the blue bin) | Food/liquid contaminates the rest of the bag. |
| Phones, laptops, chargers, some batteries (e-waste) | E-waste drop-off points | Back up data and factory reset personal devices where possible. |
| Old clothes / textiles | Donate/hand down first; otherwise use textile collection where provided | Best outcome is reuse when the item is still wearable. |
| Mattress, sofa, large furniture (bulky) | HDB: check your Town Council; Condo: check management/MCST; or use a licensed removal service | Avoid leaving bulky items in corridors/common areas while ‘waiting’. |
Using a bag/box at home to consolidate is fine. The key is: don’t dump a mixed trash bag as ‘recycling’.
Back up your data and factory reset personal devices where possible, then use an official locator to find the nearest drop-off.
SGBook summarises practical planning ranges and links back to official sources so you can verify before making decisions.