New Tuas sorting facility collects 33 million bottles and cans for recycling in under 2 months

SINGAPORE – These sorting machines in Tuas Bay do what many people in Singapore do not do as well as they should: Sort and empty metal and plastic containers for recycling.

Every day, they take in around 1,200 large bags of flattened cans and bottles returned under the Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) and send them on an industrial “roller coaster”.

Magnets separate some metal containers from the plastic ones, which are then sucked through pipes to another place where the labels are stripped.

The plastic containers are later further separated in four different types using infrared light.

Manual labour is not needed to sort the recyclables and discard around 40 per cent of contaminants, unlike other sorting facilities for the blue recycling bins.

The BCRS’ Counting and Sorting Facility at Tuas, which was officially launched on Sept 21, started operating in August.

Its operations could not have come at a better time as more labelled containers appear to be entering the market.

From the start of BCRS on April 1 to early August, 5.5 million containers were collected.

Between August and Sept 13, the solar-powered facility by waste collector Cora Environment and the scheme’s operator BCRS Ltd has collected around 33 million used bottles and cans – six times more than before.

It is located within Cora Environment’s material recovery centre, which also sorts and processes recyclables collected from the blue bins like paper, cardboard and other plastics before sending them off to recyclers.

Under BCRS, customers pay an extra 10 cents for each drink and get the money back via EZ-Link or DBS PayLah! when they deposit the used containers into a reverse vending machine. There are around 1,300 reverse vending machines islandwide.

Once fully operational from October, the BCRS is expected to recover more than one billion beverage containers used each year, and recover over 16,000 tonnes of material annually. Since the scheme’s launch, around 553 tonnes have been recovered.

Within the BCRS’ first year, the aim is to have 60 per cent of bottles and cans in the market returned for recycling. Within three years, the goal is to reach an 80 per cent return rate.

The scheme was launched to help raise Singapore’s household recycling rate, which reached an all-time low of 11 per cent in 2024 and 2025. Plastic recycling was at 4 per cent in 2025.

The blue bins, intended to collect a mix of recyclables, have been plagued with contamination rates of about 40 per cent since 2017. Segregating recyclables can improve their value, the authorities have said.

Using AI, robotic arms and infrared

The 2,000 sq m Counting and Sorting Facility – roughly the size of two Olympic swimming pools – is the first in Singapore capable of sorting six material types on a single automated line. They include aluminium, steel and PET.

Fifty-five per cent of the materials collected so far are plastics, while the remaining 45 per cent are metal.

While artificial intelligence and overhead cameras identify and count the bags containing crushed containers, robotic arms swing them onto slicers that break the bottom of the bags, before releasing the contents into a heavy-duty storage bin called a screw bunker.

Containers are further compressed inside this bin. Any residual liquid that collects at the bottom is drained out, reducing the risk of contaminating the materials.

When the public returns the used bottles and cans, they must be empty but do not need to be rinsed, although that is encouraged. The facility thus has a metallic and licorice-like odour.

Once the screw bunker releases the materials, it enters a “roller coaster” of pipes and conveyor belts to sort each material and bundle them up before sending them off to recyclers. Using the air-propelled vertical pipes reduces the facility’s footprint and also minimises odour.

A magnetic separator attracts steel cans. The rest of the containers travel through the pipes to a separating drum and wind sifter, which remove labels on the container, further raising the materials’ purity. A rotating drum screen filters out bottle caps and rings.

An eddy current machine with rapidly changing magnetic fields then separates aluminium cans from the plastic containers.

Four types of plastic bottles remain: Clear PET, coloured PET like the Mountain Dew bottles, HDPE which holds milk and juice, and PP (polypropylene).

These are individually identified in a plastic sorter machine using infrared rays, before compressed air shoots each container into its designated bin.

Sorted plastic and aluminium are compressed into bales and sold to recyclers. The revenue from recyclers are used to fund BCRS, alongside fees from drink producers and unredeemed 10 cent deposits.

BCRS Ltd told The Straits Times: “We are working with a panel of recyclers for the different materials. Due to commercial sensitivities, we will not be able to reveal the recyclers.”