During the 45 minute long presentation at the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) Semakau Landfill main building, I must admit I learnt facts about Singapore’s waste “problem” and management I never new before. The blue italicized words you will find below denotes the (fairly long) abstract I adapted from the island brochure we were given, which you could skip if you’re not the patient sort who likes reading chunky facts. Depending on how much blogger loves me, pictures continue to tell the story of the rest of my visit.
Now, let me begin introducing you to the insides of where Singapore’s junk ends up…
The Semakau Landfill, commissioned in April 99, is Singapore’s only landfill for waste disposal. All non-incinerable refuse such as construction and renovation debris and ash from incineration plants are now disposed at the Landfill. The first phase of the project took 4 years to complete at a cost of about $610 million. The Semakau Landfill is expected to meet Singapore’s need for landfill space at least till the year 2045.
The Landfill covers a total area of 350 hectares and has a landfill capacity of 63 million cu3. To create the required landfill space, a 7-km perimeter rock bund was built to enclose a part of the sea off Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng. The bund is lined with impermeable membrane and a layer of marine clay to ensure that leachate from the refuse is contained within the landfill area and treated at the leachate treatment plant. Other ancillary facilities were also built on the island to ensure self-sustainability of the landfill operation.
At the Tuas Marine Transfer Station, incoming refuse vehicles are first weighed in at the weighbridge before proceeding to the refuse reception hall, where refuse is directly discharged into specially built barges. A total of twenty discharge bays are available to ensure a quick turn-around time for the refuse collection vehicles. The tipping platform is designed to overhang into the barge so that refuse is tipped into the center of the barge. One giant excavator is used to spread the refuse in each of the barge to ensure that it is optimally loaded.
At the end of the day, the fully loaded barges are closed with hatch covers (to prevent refuse from being blown off by wind), and pushed by tugboats on a 25km journey to Semakau at night (to maximize the usage of the marine vessels). A one-way sea journey takes about approximately 3 hours.
On arrival at Semakau Landfill, the barges are berthed within an enclosed transfer building for the unloading operation. Large excavators with interchangeable and specially designed grabs are used to unload refuse directly onto the large 35-tonne payload off-road dump trucks or onto the tipping floor. (Unlike the usual 25-tonne payload trucks you see on our mainland, these 35-tonne trucks serve to maximize efficiency.) Refuse on the tipping floor is scooped up by wheeled-loaders and loaded onto the dump trucks, before making its final journey to the tipping site for disposal. There, bulldozers and excavators are used to level and compact the refuse. A fully loaded barge is emptied within 6 hours.
During the Q&A session, one of the European exchange students asked if there were plans to develop the current small-scale wind turbine into a larger-scale one, to generate an alternate form of power for Singapore. (Currently there’s one tiny wind “turbine” that generates only enough to power up the street lamps along the perimeter bund, the bulk of power generation on the island still comes from the diesel plant). Mr Loo, the guy who gave the presentation, responded positively, saying such likelihood would not be ruled out, however, he also pointed out that the winds arriving at Semakau Landfill are not strong enough to make such an option efficient.
Another student asked what would happen in 50 years when this landfill is filled up to the brim. Interestingly, Mr Loo’s response was a simple one, not hard to deduce, especially if you remember the “Clean and Green” (or what I’d like to call “the frog campaign”) during “my generation”. If you’ve got 3 minutes, check out the answer here.
After the presentation, we boarded the bus (seemed like the only one though) for the island tour. First stop, the reception hall where the barges were berthed, but we didn’t get off the bus for reasons you can guess easily. Do note that each of the mammoth excavators here costs S$2 million dollars.
We passed by several facilities before hitting the road, or perimeter bund. We traveled along the western “coast”, passing the 2 replanted mangroves along the way. These mangroves serve 2 main purposes, one, for nature conservation; and two, as a form of biological indicator. In the event the leachate penetrates the protective membrane and seeps out to the sea, the mangrove plants will be affected inadvertedly and alert us of such a leakage. In total, these mangroves started out with 400,000 saplings planted manually!
At the southern-most tip of Semakau, where the landfill opening was, we got off to take in the scenery and of course, snap away. It was also the first time I got to see where our three live-firing islands of Pulau Sudong, Pulau Pawai, and Pulau Senang lay. Remember all the announcements on radio, news and print when the public were advised to “stay away from the islands of ….” and not to be alarmed with the use of “live ammunition and thunderflashes …”? I was a tad disappointed though, didn’t see any of our RSAF planes carry out any bombing on the islands.
When everyone was satisfied with their photo-taking, we loaded up the bus and headed back to the pier to take the 15 minute boat ride back to West Coast Pier at the mainland. Thanks to Nat, my tour kaki, this became my favorite picture of all. Nowhere else in Singapore are you going to find a giant “No Entry” signboard barring you admission into an island. Tell me that’s cool.
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