NEA-MSO Anti-High-Rise Littering Message Design Project

Nov 17, 2021

NEA, JRTC

The National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Municipal Services Office (MSO) worked together to develop a multi-disciplinary experiment, to tackle the perennial issue of high-rise littering in HDB estates. With the support and assistance of the Jurong-Clementi Town Council, the experiment was conducted at areas in several HDB estates.

A four-component experiment design, involving behavioural science, eye tracking, surveys and predictive modelling, was developed to test the effectiveness of five types of public education poster messages in deterring high-rise littering behaviour. Each poster message was designed to highlight different consequences (environmental positive, environmental negative, social positive, social negative, and financial consequences) of high-rise littering. 

In coming up with the poster designs, the NEA-MSO team conducted eye-tracking and interviews to understand how people perceived the messages and areas on the posters which caught their attention the most.

Pre- and post-intervention surveys were also conducted to compare residents’ sentiments towards high-rise littering before and after the posters were put up at their resident blocks. 

Findings from on-ground observations showed that the use of these specially designed posters led to a reduction in high-rise littering in the experiment area.  

The public education posters have since been deployed at other HDB estates since Dec 2020.

1) Be a Good Neighbour.

2) Littering Attracts Pests and Pigeons

3) Littering Dirties Your Neighbours’ Clothes