SINGAPORE: Local waste company 800 Super has pushed ahead with a wider roll-out of its smart recycling boxes since May, close to a year after ironing out several kinks in the technology used in its pilot across 10 locations in Bishan East-Sin Ming.

Over the past two weeks, the company has fitted out its bins — which let users exchange recyclables for FairPrice vouchers — at 14 locations across Serangoon North, Potong Pasir and Braddell Heights.

The system was also rolled out at 37 void decks across all Ang Mo Kio GRC divisions in May.

800 Super is the public waste collector appointed by the National Environment Agency to collect refuse and recyclables for the Ang Mo Kio-Toa Payoh sector. It also serves the Pasir Ris-Bedok sector.

Glitches such as login difficulties, blank screens and hatches that would not open in the bins used during the two-year trial in Bishan and Sin Ming should now be a thing of the past.

Those bins have been replaced by improved ones from a new vendor, 800 Super told The Straits Times ahead of the launch of the Ang Mo Kio bins on July 20.

Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong attended the launch on the sidelines of an event celebrating the completion of the Teck Ghee Neighbourhood Renewal Programme at Blocks 221 to 226 in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1.

The software powering the smart recycling boxes has become more intuitive, requiring users to only key in their mobile numbers to unlock hatches to dispose of recyclables according to type — metal, plastic, paper, glass and old clothes.

Users previously needed to generate a QR code from the 800 Super Recycle Right mobile app to scan it on a QR reader at the bins to unlock a hatch. Even so, screens sometimes turned unresponsive after a scan, leaving users stranded with their recyclables.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2025