WASTE management is typically seen as low-level, unskilled work, and even invoked as a potentially unsavoury, dead-end occupation by parents to spur their children to study harder. What's more, the work environment tends to be male-dominated.
These were the stereotypical attitudes that Melissa Tan, general manager of homegrown Wah & Hua, had to battle when she first joined the business in 2010 at age 22. The social stigma remains hard to dislodge.
But Tan, now 44, is having the last laugh. Over the past couple of years, the climate change crisis has lit a fire under the sustainability movement, which has snowballed. Today, Tan's business, established by her father Steven Tan in 1978, is an essential - even desirable - enterprise, comprising a waste management business collecting and recycling household and commercial waste. Even better, it is in the final stages of completing a waste-to-energy facility in Tuas, which can eventually generate 9.9 MW per hour of electricity.
Once operational, Wah & Hua - now majority owned by Blue Planet Environmental Solutions - stands to accumulate carbon credits for clean energy, which eventually could be traded for a tidy sum.
Tan says she did not anticipate the rapid escalation of the sustainability megatrend which has swept the world. "Honestly, I did not know 10 years ago that people would be talking about sustainability and the environment. All I knew was that this business and industry would always be a sunrise industry. But how can I do it better here in Singapore? Better still, I can replicate our model to neighboring, developing countries.''
When she started, survival was key. "About 10 years ago, we were small and didn't have deep pockets. The financing for many things we wanted to do had to be funded ourselves. If we were slightly bigger banks would come to us. It was a question of whether I could put bread on the table.
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"I looked at survival, not just of my own family but also my employees. I treat all my employees as my family. I have 100 employees but really (including their families) it was maybe 500.
"Without knowing the word 'transformation', I started some transformation internally - the workflow and how we run a small business. We slowly advanced from there. In the last 10 years the business has been stable; now I think we are medium sized.''
Wah & Hua has since grown from strength to strength. In 2020 it partnered with the Germany-based Alba Group to mount a digitalized system to collect and recycle 17,000 tonnes of household waste, which is turned into usable material. Last year the company was acquired by Blue Planet, and construction began for the waste-to-energy facility in Tuas, a joint venture with a Chinese company, China TianYing Inc, reputed to be one of the largest globally in waste power generation. Covid restrictions caused a delay in the completion, but the facility is now expected to begin operations in this year.
All these milestones, however, were hard won. When she started, she had to overcome scepticism and resistance from long-time staff, who were invariably male. What's more, it was an uphill climb to convince her family to invest in mechanisation equipment, which she believed was key in manpower-scarce Singapore.
She was so taken with the potential benefits of automation that she came up with her own design, "my first little mini technology''. It would cost S$500,000 but would also save the workers time in sorting through waste. "I told my family, let's try it. Everyone objected. I said - Fine, I still want to do it. I would pay for the machine myself. If it failed, I'd be fully responsible. But if it worked it would prove that technology is the way forward.''
The equipment succeeded in raising productivity by between 200 and 300 per cent. Since then 60 to 70 per cent of Wah & Hua operations are automated. "Subsequently when we start to talk about technology, the family was more willing to say - yes this is something we can look at.'' The Tuas facility is also expected to be fully mechanized.
Another big hurdle was to convince the family that a sale to Blue Planet was the way forward, despite a dilution of their ownership. "Every project that I want to do, I take the time to speak to the family individually. I give them case studies, work out the financials - where we are today and where can we find the money to fund the project.''
Sale of the family stake, however, was a major bridge to cross. "I told my father: Today we are in this position. But where do you envision yourself in 10 years? Do you think we'd be able to maintain our position with government restrictions, lack of workers, competitive pricing and many other factors? There are family-owned companies which become listed and the companies no longer belong to the families. But they still run the business, and they're able to grow. I told him to choose.
"It took him a while to consider and make the final decision. The company was his and I could not tell him what to do.''
Tan credits her father for inspiring her to persevere and develop resilience. He started the business with a single garbage truck. "People looked down on our business, but it didn't bother him. To him, it was a decent job. He was the driver, the worker and salesman. He had to persevere and he was determined. I think I learned that mindset. When I fail, I pause and reflect and try again. I keep trying because one day, I'll get there.''
Eventually energy output from the Tuas facility will be used to power on-site operations, and the balance will be connected to Singapore's power grid. "But I'm not selling our energy to the power grid. I'm still thinking of who to work with. I'm going to apply to certify ourselves as a producer of clean energy, and that's where carbon credits will come in.''
She is eager to expand elsewhere in Asia, to replicate Wah & Hua's waste management model, including helping to construct zero-waste facilities similar to that in Tuas. "I've been looking at overseas markets for some time, at India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia and other developing countries… We'll go on a partnership model.
"My message to future partners is that we're not taking away their business, but we'd like to export our Singapore capability into their business and make money together.''
Meanwhile, Tan has her work cut out as chairman of the Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore. The WMRAS was set up in 2001 as a not-for-profit trade association for solid waste management, to advocate best practices and serve as a platform to share knowledge. "I'd like to make people understand that being in a waste or environmental business is nothing to be ashamed of. It's about protecting the environment, so that the earth and the environment will be much better than it was yesterday.''
"In my generation, mothers would tell their children - You better study because if you don't you'd become a garbage collector. That's why our industry has a very negative social stigma… I would like to uplift our industry to be something we can be proud of. Eventually for my children and grandchildren, we can say - you better study hard because you need a degree to become an environmental specialist… On the association level, we're trying to convince (government) agencies that we need to create courses for this sector; we will roll them out very soon.''
Next-gen insight
"Talented and ambitious next-gen leaders of family businesses are ideally positioned to transform not just the company, but also the industry for greater societal impact. Next-gen leaders can combine the most innovative ideas with long-standing business relationships to champion values-led transformative efforts as a way of sustaining the family's legacy."
Professor Kenneth Goh, Academic Director, Business Families Institute, V3 Group Fellow in Family Entrepreneurship, Singapore Management University
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