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Tray Return Initiative To Roll Out To All Hawker Centres

27 Jul 2013

First phase of tray return to cover 34 hawker centres over the next eight months

Singapore, 27 July 2013 – The National Environment Agency (NEA) announced today that 34 hawker centres will be fitted with tray return facilities under the first of three phases to roll out the Tray Return Initiative to all hawker centres in Singapore over the next two years, after the pilot scheme1 involving nine centres had started in November 2012. The first phase is slated to be completed in the next eight months. This is part of the continual efforts to promote tray return as an effort to help keep hawker centres and food outlets clean and as an act of social graciousness towards cleaners and fellow patrons.                                                                                                         

2          The launch event was held at Yuhua Market & Hawker Centre today, the first tray return ready centre under the first phase. Subsequently, the Tray Return Initiative will be introduced in Bukit Timah Market tomorrow. More details on the schedule of the other centres will be announced later.  

Tray Return Partnership

3          The Tray Return Partnership 2 also welcomed 11 new Tray Return Partners (see Annex A) who will join the working group, which currently consists of members from 17 major food courts operators and Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs, also known as fast food restaurants). NEA is happy to note that all QSR outlets are now tray return ready. Participating food courts will also be tray return ready by end 2014. All partners recognise that it takes time to change the public’s mindset for the tray return habit to kick in, and that consistent effort is required to sustain public participation in the initiative. The partners will continue to plan and coordinate these efforts.

Tray Return Icon

4          A new Tray Return Icon (see Annex B) was also launched to help the public to identify tray return ready eateries. It was revealed by Second Minister of Environment and Water Resources, Ms Grace Fu. The icon will be displayed at all tray return participating hawker centres, food courts, QSRs and other dining establishments from August 2013. We hope that the icon will remind the public to return their trays and create a cleaner dining environment for everyone. 

5          This icon was jointly developed by NEA and its Tray Return Partners from over 200 entries submitted in the Tray Return Icon Design Competition that ran from May to July 2013. Prizes were awarded to the top three designs and consolation winners (see Annex C).       

1 The Tray Return Initiative was piloted in nine hawker centres from November 2012 - February 2013.

2 The Tray Return Partnership was launched in May 2013. Prior to the launch, a working group was formed in March 2013 to plan and coordinate implementation of the tray return rollout schedule. 

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For more information, please contact
 
Call Centre: 1800-CALL NEA (1800-2255 632)
Email: Contact_NEA@nea.gov.sg

ANNEX A

Partners in the Tray Return Partnership

New Tray Return Partners:

  1. Ascendas Pte Ltd
  2. Best Bites located at Kendall
  3. Brani Cafeteria located at Brani Terminal
  4. Cafe Seven located at Safekeep Building
  5. Chilli Padi located at The Galen
  6. Food Inn Cafeteria located at IRAS Building
  7. Go Makan Food Court located at Blk 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10
  8. Golden Spoon Eating House & Catering located at NTU Canteen 16
  9. Houseman’s Canteen located at Changi General Hospital
  10. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Canteen located at New Phoenix Park
  11. Toast Box (BreadTalk Pte Ltd)

Existing Tray Return Partners (since May 2013):

  1. Burger King (Revenue Valley Pte Ltd)
  2. Carl’s Junior (Aspac F&B Pte Ltd)
  3. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (S) Pte Ltd
  4. Food Republic Pte Ltd
  5. Food Junction Management Pte Ltd
  6. Kentucky Fried Chicken Management Pte Ltd
  7. Kopitiam Investment Pte Ltd
  8. Koufu Pte Ltd
  9. Long John Silver’s (Zenso Food Singapore Pte Ltd)
  10. McDonald’s Singapore
  11. MOS Burger (MOS Foods Singapore Pte Ltd)
  12. NTUC Foodfare Co-operative Ltd
  13. Popeye’s (Revenue Valley Pte Ltd)
  14. Select Group Limited (Food court at Singapore Flyer)
  15. Subway Singapore Development Pte Ltd
  16. Texas Chicken (Select Group Limited)
  17. Wendy’s Singapore (Kopitiam Management (S) Pte Ltd)

ANNEX B

Tray Return Icon 

tray-return-logo

Icon Rationale:

Tray Return is an act of social graciousness as symbolised by the colour blue:

-       the darker blue represents strong and steadfast commitment to social graciousness and

-       the lighter blue signifies friendliness and consideration for others.

The triple-tiered return rack portrays the tray return objectives:

  1. to promote social graciousness
  2. to reduce waiting time and
  3. to promote a cleaner dining environment

The act of returning trays is encapsulated in orange to represent our commitment to adopt an energetic attitude while carrying out this gesture of social graciousness. 

ANNEX C

Tray Return Icon Design Competition Prizes & Winners

  • 1st Prize, $1500: Ivan Woo
  • 2nd Prize, $700: Jeth Koh
  • 3rd Prize, $500: Muhammad Amsyar Bin Ali
  • Consolation Prize, $300: Koh Kar Man, Christina