Everything About Yishun’s Sanitary Pad Litterbug & What Nee Soon Town Council Is Doing About It

Ah, another news about Yishun again. Besides the crazy cat murderers and white rabbit candy smoothie sweetening up that area, what more can Yishun house?

Another case of animal abuse again? Or a new good food popping up soon?

None of the above. This time around, it’s about litterbugs at a housing block in Yishun. Specifically, sanitary pad litterbugs.

Yup. I had the same reaction too. Ew.

Sanitary Pad Litterbugs In Yishun

According to Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor, National Environmental Agency (NEA) received more than 7,700 reports of high-rise littering between 2016 to 2018.

This is a cause for concern as passers-by have complained that they were often nearly hit by sanitary pads. Ew again.

Member of Parliament for Nee Soon GRC Lee Bee Wah drew attention to the issue of sanitary pad littering in her ward, as well as questioned the effectiveness of surveillance cameras. She further suggested the use of DNA testing for enforcement.

According to Dr Lee, the high-rise littering problem at Block 841 involving mainly sanitary pads has gone on for a long while ever since the first time she raised it in Parliament in 2013.

This problem has persisted for a long time. Furthermore, these are inconsiderate and anti-social acts are unhygienic and should be dealt with properly.

The Battle Against Litterbugs

As such, Nee Soon Town Council is stepping up against the high-rise litterbugs in Yishun. Dr Khor responded that the number of successful enforcement actions taken from observing surveillance camera jumped 120 times from 2011 to 2018.

Dr Khor also further explained that NEA’s enforcement efforts also depended on the quality of public reporting. In this case, only a picture of the littered sanitary pad had been given with no information on where it might have come from.

So it’s difficult to do something about it.

Why Do People Litter?

According to the National University of Singapore (NUS) sociologist Tan Ern Ser, a large proportion of people occasionally litter as they find it inconvenient and think that they will not be caught for it.

However, for the small number of habitual litterbugs, they lack the empathy and sensitivity towards others.

Some of them might have mental problems and are unable to understand the consequences of their actions towards others.

So to combat the problem, it is recommended to combine strategies such as education and enforcement.

Think holistic, yeah?

Public education can be in the form of short segments on television, or door-to-door engagement by grassroots leaders.

On the other hand, “soft” approaches can be used for enforcement, such as bringing offenders to dirty estates and asking them to share their thoughts. Of course, offenders will be punished accordingly for their self-centred and inconsiderate actions.

This includes fines, Corrective Work Orders, or even imprisonment if the littering causes death.

Hopefully, this situation would improve soon. I wouldn’t want to walk home every day, fearing that a sanitary pad would drop on me any moment.

Or like my ah ma would say, wah suay lah, cannot tio Toto this week liao.