Tuas plant offers public a peek at how it turns waste into energy

Tour of its operations among Go Green SG activities in July to promote sustainability

- Cheryl Tan

We want to be able to contribute to the National Environment Agency's target of reducing landfill volume. The most efficient way of doing so is to reduce the waste volume. So if people segregate their waste as much as possible, more waste can then be brought for recycling.

MR MITSURU TADA, head of the waste-to-energy business unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which owns the TuasOne plant. He hopes the public visits will give people a better understanding of waste management in Singapore.

As though in a life-size claw machine game, a worker manoeuvres gigantic metallic talons from a control room, scooping up five to six tonnes of waste at a time. This is then collected in a holding bin and subsequently sent off for incineration.

The TuasOne waste-to-energy plant is responsible for handling about 3,600 tonnes of waste daily, incinerating it and turning it into ash, and then sending it to Semakau Landfill.

The heat from the process is also converted into energy, generating 120MW of electricity daily - sufficient to power about 240,000 fourroom Housing Board flats.

In July, members of the public can get an up-close, behind-thescenes look at how the newest waste-to-energy plant, which was operational in December 2021, does its job on a daily basis, as part of the annual Go Green SG movement that aims to rally citizens, organisations and the community to take climate action.