ABSTRACT
Robust economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s saw Singapore's income rising rapidly to that of developed nations. An ambitious goal calling for zero landfill and zero waste was mooted to reduce the incineration of waste as much as possible by promoting its recycling and the innovative use of recycled materials. The Singapore Green Plan 2012 proposed to increase the recycling rate to 60" by 2012; strive towards zero-landfill; and, reduce the need to build new incineration plants from the current five to seven years to every ten to fifteen years or longer. The collaboration between the public and private spheres to develop new environmental technologies was also stressed. Environmental public policy in Singapore had been driven largely by various media-based environmental legislation and regulations such as the Clean Air Act and Regulations 1971/73, and the Water Pollution Control and Drainage Act 1975. These were consolidated in April 1999 as the Environmental Pollution Control Act.
