[Sureai]

I am right now in Singapore for a visit and personally I don't have the feeling of a very clean city. There are some things that drive me crazy as a european. I went to a hawker with some Singaporeans and we got new disposable chopsticks for every dish. Wich means I ended up with three pairs of chopsticks. All plates were disposable. Either of plastic or styrofoam. Like in the article we didn't clean our trays, a cleaner took them the second we finished eating. I asked the Singaporeans how they feel about all the plastic and they just replied that's just how it is. Especially, that you get a plastic bag for every two items in the supermarket drives me nuts. Even when I am holding a backpack directly in front of the cashier he starts packing the items faster in a plastic bag than I can say anything. They even have watered sponges for their finger tips so they can be quicker with the plastic bags.

Needless to say, that all the trash ends up somewhere. Maybe not so much in percentage, but you will definitely find litter every few meters. The difference to my hometown in Germany is, that the litter there stays for years but also not so much new litter per day is produced. Maybe the Singaporeans should place more public trash bins or get some moop bags.

[mediumdeviation]

Regarding disposable plates and utensils, I actually don't see much of them unless you ask for takeout. I suspect in the area you're in the cost of dish washing is more expensive than the cost of plates and refuse collection. A tax on disposables would be great.

Singapore is actually getting better on reducing disposables, though slower than I would like. Cashiers don't double bag items anymore, and try to pack as much into one as possible. Paper takeout boxes and bags have replaced styrofoam and plastic in many places, and it's currently trendy to not offer plastic straws for drinks.

Another reason for disposable chopsticks, (though this applies more in China, Taiwan and Malaysia) is that the customers may not trust the hygiene of the place they're eating in. Disposable chopsticks are cut with the centers intact so it's impossible to put them back together and resell them.

[Sureai]

I had one metallic straw in a fancy cocktail bar. The rest were plastic. Not to say, that I get a plastic cup full of ice with a plastic straw when I order a green tea, which comes in a can and is already ice cold. For the litter I see the most: part of plastic bags and Dasani water bottles. I hope the change in trash management, recycling and maybe trash separation does not only start with the rich people here, but with everyone.

[Cthulhu_]

Metallic straw? Like, reusable? Fairly sure that wouldn't fly anywhere else, I mean, even plastic straws are individually packaged right now due to hygiene considerations.

Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.

[CaptainZapp]

I ate street food, while sitting on rickety plastic chairs on small metal tables, covered in noise and moped fumes in Penang, Bangkok and Ha Noi among other places.

I ate a lot of it and never, ever got sick.

Here's my golden rule from which I never deviate:

  Make sure that you see how they cook the food on premises 
  It needs to be well visited, preferably by locals

As I said I never got sick (or even felt slight discomfort) and I had a number of memorable meals under such conditions.

Would a western health inspector tolerate the setup? Hell; no!

But, so what?

Sure, you can stick to the hotel restaurant of The Intercontinental in Bangkok, but you'll be hardly any safer than eating on a wobbly table in some small soi in the area.

But man, will you be missing out...

[roel_v]

Do you eat with plastic utensils when you go anywhere but a food truck festival?

[titzer]

I have yet to see evidence that individually packaged plastic forks and knives are more hygienic, or that any poorly-cleaned utensil ever made anyone sick.

> Disposable plastic > poorly cleaned reusables.

FUD from germophobes, IMHO.

[larrysalibra]

Metal straws are very popular in upscale bars in financial cities such as New York, London and Hong Kong. It’s usually a sign you’re paying way too much for your drink!

[ValentineC]

> Regarding disposable plates and utensils, I actually don't see much of them unless you ask for takeout. I suspect in the area you're in the cost of dish washing is more expensive than the cost of plates and refuse collection. A tax on disposables would be great.

Most hawker stalls charge an extra 20 cents or so for takeout, which helps them recover the cost of the container. I think that's a good compromise.

[then]

This! Many Shenzhen China street bbq 'hawkers?' will offer you a plate that is covered with disposable plastic bag, so they don't need to clean the plates (cost more than bag?), only throw away the bag (throwing meaning recycling by someone else). Its purely about making a living....NOW...all down to the smallest bit of margin and plastic it seems. It also seems plastic in Asia is a lot more recyclable than in Europe, where it's seen as a threat. In China you put your banana peel in the 'non recyclable' bin and your plastic in the 'recyclable' bin... This sorta hints at the human cost behind recycling this stuff it seems...beyond being someones retirement fund, can we really get rid of this plastic? What are the costs of this? Are there more energy efficient alternatives?

[then]

scanning over the article > "clean" in the headline and "green" first paragraph leaves me confused, also the two following paragraphs are titled "clean and green" and then talks about fines...followed by "a 'fine' city" (pun intended?). So in what way does punishment affects 'green' solutions? What solutions are you looking for? In what way would incentives work? 'Mentality change' is also an interesting one...Too many questions

[theriddlr]

The separate disposable chopsticks used to be rinsed and then repacked and reused.

[kirvyteo]

It is definitely a "cleaned" city. The level of cleanliness has gone now and litter has increased. Public awareness of this has gone down. If you know Singapore, there has always been a history of govt-led campaigns.

15 years ago, it wasn't like that. People bring their own tupperware to do take aways. All the cutlery were washed and cleaned. This meant more time and energy from the hawkers. In the name of efficiency, low cost, disposable plastic/styrofoam/chopsticks is a convenient solution, unfortunately.

[skhro87]

While I agree there is a lot of plastic used for disposable plastic bags, it is not common to get disposable chopsticks in hawker centers, unless you ask for takeout, which often costs 20-50c extra. Usually all plates/cutlery in hawker centers are reusable plastic. While Singapore cannot be compared to Europe in terms of "save-the-environment" attitude, there recently has been improvement (e.g. some supermarkets started to give discount if you bring your own bag; government incentives to educate people to use reusable plastic etc).

Also, you say Singapore doesn't feel like a very clean city to you, but you don't have any examples. Certainly Singapore is very clean compared to any European/German city of the same size, or anywhere else in SEA.

I'm also German, living in Singapore for 6+ years.

[ValentineC]

> While I agree there is a lot of plastic used for disposable plastic bags, it is not common to get disposable chopsticks in hawker centers, unless you ask for takeout, which often costs 20-50c extra. Usually all plates/cutlery in hawker centers are reusable plastic.

Naming one case that might stand out: Lau Pa Sat's stalls almost all use disposable cutlery.

[Sureai]

I guess especially if one considers the population density the cleanliness is remarkable. From just walking around and experiencing litter volume I see no difference to Munich, despite the missing vandalism and chewing gum. I don't say, that Singapore feels dirty. It just feels normal. Of course feeling is not a scientific value, but for the "super clean Singapore" my expectations were different. Now I can more relate to the super cleaned Singapore as a statement about this city.

[dawhizkid]

Is this really true? I can't imagine the amount of plastic waste per person per year is necessarily more than other developed countries. Also I don't remember using disposable plates/bowls when I ordered from the Hawker stalls unless you specifically ask for something to take away - otherwise there's shared reusable plates/bowls that are cleaned.

One thing I definitely know is that the stalls have bans on handing out napkins, which both serves to give the poor a way to make money and reduce the amount napkin waste by pushing the cost to you. I also think it's fairly common for residents to carry their own reusable utensils with them when they go to places like that.

[Sureai]

The last few days I am here I try to be more aware and observatory, but I guess that now I am biased this won't work so well. But the first search results for plastic trash in Singapore aren't so optimistic:

"Analysis of the NEA data by Reuters shows that plastic waste per capita has increased nearly 20 percent over the last 15 years. Areport by the local Straits Times newspaper in March said each person in Singaporethrew away an average of 13 bags a day in 2016.05.06.2018" [0] and more plastic bags in [1].

But like some one already mentioned the amount of recycled construction materials is remarkable [2]. As I am not an environmentalist nor a plastic hater I wasn't looking for litter or trash here. But anyways it was enough to make me wonder. Now I am definitely interested in the numbers in comparison to other cities.

[0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-waste/in-singap...

[1] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/monstrous-sc...

[2] https://www.nea.gov.sg/our-services/waste-management/waste-s...

[zandl]

You should visit other countries in the area and then you can see the difference in Singapore, it’s a pretty remarkable and unexpected achievement.

[testcross]

Singapore is not very good at recycling or limiting the products of individuals. On the other hand, they recycle 100% of garbage from building constructions. Which is a pretty big volume of garbage.

[philliphaydon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Semakau

Trash in Singapore is burned and the ash becomes reclaimed land.

https://www.facebook.com/nasdaily/videos/how-singapore-clean...

[kccqzy]

Those trash ends up getting combusted to harvest their energy. After the energy content is extracted for electricity generation, the resulting ash is used to make new land.

Source: go visit Pulau Semakau where the waste-to-energy process takes place.

[guywhocodes]

If you are not asking for take away, only the tourist-trap hawker centres will give you single use of anything but maybe tiny plastic sauce trays. What you experienced is incredibly far from the norm.

[Paraesthetic]

You don't talk like a European at all.