Turning Trash into Treasure: Insights from Assoc Prof Fei Xunchang
Semakau landfill is expected to be full by 2035, according to Channel News Asia (CNA).
One plausible solution is to use treated bottom ash - which is heavier and coarser - to make a construction material called NEWSand.
This can then be fashioned into concrete, lightweight aggregate and coastal protection blocks, said Associate Professor Fei Xunchang of NTU School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the principal investigator of a national project to investigate the landfill and find ways to reuse its materials.
He noted that high-income and coastal or island countries like Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands have established regulations and mature markets in the space of ash reuse. However, the initiative remains in its early stages in Singapore.
Assoc Prof Fei added that NTU was working with NEA to refine ash quality standards, with the aim of broadening the ways the material can be reused. This will hopefully motivate industries to accept ash as a raw material, he said.
