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KGS has been recycling electronics in Singapore for years. As a licensed e-waste recycler, we process hundreds of tonnes of devices every year at our facility in Tuas. We know what responsible recycling looks like. We also know, from experience, how far most e-waste is from getting there.
Singapore has made great strides in building recycling infrastructure, particularly for businesses and large organisations. For residents, there are options too. But as we kept seeing in our day-to-day work, awareness and access do not always translate into action. We felt there was more we could do to make it easier for everyday households to take that step. TakeBag grew out of that thinking.
Singapore generates around 60,000 tonnes of e-waste every year. Only about 5.5% of that gets properly recycled.
As Vulcan Post reported, Singapore generates approximately 60,000 tonnes of electronic waste a year, with a recycling rate of just around 5.5%. Those numbers tell part of the story. What we see on the ground tells the rest.
Phones. Laptops. Tablets. Power banks. We regularly encounter electronics that have ended up in general waste rather than through a proper recycling channel. These are not items people threw away carelessly. They are items people did not know what to do with, or found it too difficult to dispose of responsibly.
When electronics end up in landfill, they do not simply sit there. They break down over time and release toxic materials including lead, mercury, and cadmium into the surrounding environment. These are substances that do not belong anywhere near soil or groundwater.
There is another risk that is less talked about. Many everyday devices — phones, laptops, tablets, power banks — contain lithium-ion batteries. As the Singapore Consumer Product Safety Office advises, these batteries should never be disposed of in general bins as they can create serious fire hazards. A lithium-ion battery in a waste bin can overheat, combust, or in some cases explode, putting waste collectors and public infrastructure at risk. Proper recycling through a certified channel like TakeBag ensures these batteries are handled safely from the moment they leave your home.
Most residents in Singapore are aware that e-waste should not go into the general bin. The information is out there. The intention is often there too. What breaks down is what happens next.
Singapore does have e-waste drop-off points. The issue is that for many residents, they are simply not convenient enough to change behaviour.
Think about what responsible e-waste disposal used to require: researching where the nearest collection point is, making a separate trip to get there, carrying potentially bulky or heavy devices, and hoping the bin will not be full when you arrive. For most busy households, that is four steps too many.
The result is predictable. Devices accumulate. Recycling gets put off. Eventually, when a drawer gets too full or a move happens, everything ends up in the bin.
We wanted to understand how to remove as many of those steps as possible. The answer turned out to be simpler than expected.
Recycling e-waste is not just about knowing you should. It is about having a convenient way to actually do it.
TakeBag works because it is designed around the actual obstacles residents face, not an idealised version of how recycling should work.
The bag comes to you. You order it for free at takebag.kgs.com.sg and it arrives at your door. You fill it at home, at your own pace, with old phones, laptops, tablets, cables, chargers and other small electronics.
When you are ready, you scan the QR code inside the bag to book a slot at your nearest PICK! locker. There are approximately 1,100 PICK! locker locations across Singapore, placing one within roughly 5 minutes of virtually any HDB home. You drop the bag in, and you are done.
No special trips. No heavy lifting across town. No searching for a bin that may or may not be nearby. The entire process is designed to fit around a normal day.
One concern we heard repeatedly, especially from professionals and working adults, was data. What happens to the information on a recycled phone or laptop? Who handles it, and can it be trusted?
It is a fair concern. A factory reset is not always sufficient to permanently remove data from a device. Professional data destruction requires more than a software wipe.
Every item processed through TakeBag undergoes certified data destruction at our Tuas facility before anything else happens. This includes degaussing for hard drives, physical shredding for SSDs and mobile devices, and secure overwriting where applicable. The same standards used by enterprise IT teams are applied to every single bag we receive, regardless of who sent it.
TakeBag is listed on the NEA's official e-waste recycling page as a recognised programme for Singapore residents. It is also featured on Recyclopedia.sg as one of the most accessible e-waste recycling options available.
The programme has also been covered on Channel 8 and featured in Lianhe Zaobao, Singapore's most widely read Chinese-language daily, reflecting growing public awareness around e-waste across the community.
We did not build TakeBag to be a niche product for people who are already environmentally conscious. We built it for everyone. For the resident who has never thought about where their old phone goes. For the household that keeps putting off clearing out that drawer. For the person who wants to do the right thing but needs it to actually be easy.
Every bag returned is a device that does not end up in landfill. A set of data that is properly destroyed. A small step toward a recycling rate that Singapore can be proud of.
We built TakeBag for everyone, not just those who are already recycling.
Since launching in 2024, TakeBag has been distributed across Singapore estates including Zhenghua and Clementi, with community partners helping to put bags directly into residents' hands. The response has shown us that when recycling is made genuinely accessible, people take it up.
We are continuing to grow the programme, build new community partnerships, and find more ways to close the gap between good intentions and actual recycling.
If you have not yet ordered your free TakeBag, you can do so at takebag.kgs.com.sg. And if you are part of a community organisation interested in bringing TakeBag to your estate, reach out to us at ask@kgs.com.sg.
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