Aiming for A Zero Waste NUS

Our Approach- Creating Zero Waste Precincts

NUS has a vision to achieve an operational Zero Waste campus by 2030, where around 80% to 90% of our waste sent to incineration plants will be diverted for recycling, reusing and most importantly cutting down the waste generated. The Zero Waste NUS Roadmap 2030 was developed in support of Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan which aims to reduce waste disposed to Semakau Landfill by 2030 through minimising food waste, packaging waste and e-waste.

As a typical city archetype, the NUS campus is a microcosm of the Singapore city with residential housing, waste management services as well as facilities and amenities such as F&B establishments. Our ingrained habits and social norm of using resources without much thought or consideration result in a wasteful take-make-throw linear economy. In striving towards a Zero Waste campus, a whole-of-university behavioural and cultural change is needed. This means that the campus community must make reusing for takeaways and careful waste sorting for recycling, a personnel habit and a positive social norm.

We will strive to establish these habits and norms in “Zero Waste precincts” where the NUS community and visitors can practise reusing and recycling at various touchpoints as they go about their activities, starting with the first Zero Waste precinct in University Town. These precincts will be realised using an integrated hardware-software-heartware approach. This approach combines visible infrastructure cues (hardware) to trigger activities that reduce waste, making available data and feedback (software) to students on their daily waste generation and recycling patterns to foster mindful waste sorting, and providing opportunities for students to testbed their ideas on campus to deepen their sense of involvement and ownership (heartware).