Discussion | Beverage Container Return Scheme

[jq75]

For the 10c refund
They’re dismayed by my effort
So awkward

 

[archie7]

They refers to?
stay true to yourself

 

[Shion]

unable to get the refund ?

 

[buttbERry]

where are the pics?

 

[JAson1980]

Probably by some charsiew scholar whose mother is collecting cans and bottles for selling to karang guni.

 

[jq75]

Can dont wash before deposit?

Anyway is the dumb system created by textbook answers relied by people who think they are smart, voted in by the same flock and wont acknowledge it as a failure.

Not nec to wash. Just empty it properly

 

[dexboi]

i saw there are already ants crawling inside the machine...
don't bother about washing and waste your water bill.

tbh, MANY ppl just throw away the bottles/cans, nobody cares about the 10cents.

 

[sanzhu]

One recycle machince cost h7ndred thousand

 

[Kop]

Wasting time. Mindful that you can't throw away the metal can or plastic bottle, waste time to go to machine and go through the flow of getting back the 10 cent

 

[singsangsong]

From Reddit:

I just attempted to return a single plastic bottle at an RVM to get back the $0.10 deposit. The machine scanned the bottle, took it in, and then immediately spat out an error: “Refund unsuccessful. Please retain ticket to claim refund via email.”

To get my 10 cents back, BCRS Ltd expects me to:

1. Email ⁠hi@returnright.sg
2. Send a photo of the receipt
3. Provide my full name, bank name, and bank account number over unencrypted email
4. Wait up to 30 business days for them to process it manually.

The processing cost of a human staff member reading that email and executing a bank transfer vastly exceeds $0.10. It’s an absurd friction-by-design model where they rely on 99% of people giving up so they can absorb the unclaimed deposits.
Beyond this receipt joke, the entire BCRS architecture feels flawed from top to bottom:

Payment Lock-In: Why only SimplyGo EZ-Link or DBS PayLah!? Most commuters tap in directly with bank cards or Apple/Google Pay nowadays and don't carry EZ-Link cards. And instead of using universal SGQR / PayNow, they lock mobile transfers to a single bank’s proprietary wallet. If you aren't in that ecosystem, you're locked out of your own deposit.

Geographic Friction: Moving primary collection away from void-deck blue recycling bins to centralized RVMs turns a simple disposal habit into a dedicated 5-10 minute trek.

Serial Processing Bottlenecks: Processing bottles one by one via an optical scanner creates massive queues. If one person brings a giant bag of 50 bottles, the machine is held up for 10 minutes. If the machine jams, fills up, or suffers a software error, the entire node goes offline.

The Net Emissions Irony: You have hundreds of machines running 24/7 (optical sensors, motors, compactors, screens, cellular modems) paired with dedicated logistics teams driving around on targeted collection runs whenever a machine flags "full." Are we actually saving net carbon here, or just creating a hardware tax to look green?

We already had blue recycling bins at every single block. Adding deposit levies, proprietary payment hurdles, and fragile, single-queue machines just turns civic recycling into a frustrating chore.

Is anyone actually finding this system smooth, or is it universally annoying?

Eggmy and Janil wansui!

 

[Overture1928]

Over-engineered?

Was it even engineered

 

[BigMonkey]

the effort and time needed is worth more than 10cents. they should increase it to 50cents, any mishap, more justifible to be the sheep that has no head.

 

[Fallingrain]

Hahaha so much trouble just for 10 cents
Most people will just forget about it.
Maybe this is the plan

 

[Akky85]

the effort and time needed is worth more than 10cents. they should increase it to 50cents, any mishap, more justifible to be the sheep that has no head.

Increase to 50 cents means that drink just cost that much more, make it even a chore to find and deal with what the redditor already mentioned.

And now also have an added effect of ppl seeing +50 cost upfront and even more uproar will occur.

 

[unrealx262]

sense it is deliberate to earn that 10c from us.. knowing we will be arsed to go thru all that trouble

 

[elevate]

Pap washing machine

 

[sAVaGEmP5]

"where will the money be funded"

Me: this new 10 cent tax initiative

 

[ckt1978]

just increase to 100 dollars.
then no 1 will order canned / bottled drinks liao. just sell those chrysanthumum packet drinks will do.
save time for every1. no need this BCRS b u l l S H I T.

 

[wongminmin]

actually they can store paylah number. Then when network back, the system will auto credit into their account.

if ezlink down, will a bit tricky tho..... the only way is gahmen make everyone to do mandate paynow.

dunnoe how foreigners going to retrieve their 10c. lol

 

[Nevereatrice]

what can u do? profiteering in the name of save the earth