'Mr Toilet' Jack Sim says S$10 million grants for S'pore coffeeshops to clean toilets 'unsustainable', proposes tougher enforcement action

The Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) recently announced that the coffeeshops in Singapore will soon be able to tap on S$10 million from two grants to improve the cleanliness of their toilets.

Sounds like a good idea? Well, not for Jack Sim a.k.a Mr Toilet.

Putting up a Facebook post on Mar. 4, Sim said that this move is "outright wrong and unsustainable".

Sim opined that the government shouldn't subsidise private businesses.

Instead, he feels that the authorities should be taking enforcement action against recalcitrant coffeeshop operators.

Double standards?

First, there is the issue of what Sim called the "double standards".

"If you didn't give money to the shopping centres, why are you giving money to the coffeeshops?"

Next, Sim described the grant as "unsustainable".

"What will happen after NEA stop giving money to the coffeeshop owners after two years? We'll be back to square one when the coffeeshop owners stop cleaning their toilets again. We cannot give them money forever.

Is the NEA going to give this money for the next 10 years? 50 years? Certainly we cannot do so forever, therefore we cannot give them now. It's simply not sustainable."

Another suggestion

Sim's alternative solution is to take coffeeshop operators to task by punishing those who refuse to keep their toilets clean, until they "behave themselves".

In a subsequent Facebook post, Sim provided more concrete suggestions in response to "lax" enforcement.

He suggested increasing the frequency of inspections by authorities, raising fines to at least S$2,000 for repeat offenders, and introducing a publicly-displayed toilet cleanliness grading system similar to food hygiene ratings.

More about the grants

The grants are part of recommendations put forth by the Public Toilets Taskforce, which was convened to improve the cleanliness of public toilets.

The first grant is the S$5 million Coffeeshop Toilet Renovation Grant that encourages coffeeshop operators to renovate their toilets and achieve Happy Toilet Programme certification.

Operators can apply to NEA for funding of up to 95 per cent of their toilet renovation costs, capped at S$50,000 per coffeeshop.

The second grant is a S$5 million Coffeeshop Toilet Deep Cleaning Grant.

Coffeeshop operators can apply to NEA for funding up to 95 per cent of their two-year deep cleaning contract cost, capped at S$25,000 per coffeeshop.

Successful grant applicants will also receive free on-site toilet-cleaning training for their in-house cleaners.

More details on the two grants will be provided later in 2025.

In addition, the Public Hygiene Council will expand its Neighbourhood Toilets Community Group programme to enforce positive toilet hygiene practices among users, premises owners, and operators.

Who is Jack Sim?

Known also as Mr Toilet, Jack Sim started the World Toilet Organization (WTO) to campaign for better sanitation standards in toilets worldwide.

The organisation helps people in other countries, such as India and China, get access to toilets and ensure proper sanitation that does not pollute the rivers and transmit diseases.

Even though he started out with toilets in Singapore, Sim's mission is for everybody in the world to have access to proper, clean toilets:

"When I began my work in 2001, there were 2.4 billion people without access to proper sanitation which then increased to 2.6 billion. Now, it is 2.4 billion and going down...We cannot stop until every single human being on the planet has access to proper sanitation wherever they are."

In some ways, Sim's work led Singapore to table the UN resolution "Sanitation for All" in 2013, urging member states to improve access to sanitation among the poor, raise awareness on clean toilets and eradicate open defecation.

Top images: Canva, Jack Sim/Facebook