Man has earned S$80 returning bottles & cans collected from dormitories to BCRS machine

A man has earned S$80 by returning bottles and cans to a Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) machine in Tampines.

In a TikTok video on Sep. 5, the user, whose name is Arnel, shared a video of himself surrounded by trash bags full of recyclables, depositing the items into the machine.

At the time of writing, the video has garnered over 300,000 views, 5,000 likes and 900 comments.

He captioned the video, "Good morning, 10 cents".

"We may not earn much from collecting, but as long as we get the 10 cents, we’re happy."

Arnel told Mothership that he collects the cans at his dormitory at night.

Almost S$80 in returns

According to Arnel, he has received close to S$80 in refunds from the BCRS machine since he started collecting in July 2026.

The 40-year-old, who is from the Philippines, noted that his fellow foreign workers leave the cans behind after drinking beer or soft drinks.

He added that he decided to collect them "because I want to help [the] Government [keep] our environment clean".

There are multiple videos on his page showing him collecting and returning beverage containers.

An earlier video on Aug. 26 displayed a large trash bag full of recyclables next to the BCRS machine.

In a follow-up video on Sep. 6, Arnel could be seen attempting to return the beer cans and getting rejected despite the cans having the BCRS logo.

He gave the machine a thumbs down.

Netizens largely supportive

In the comments section, most netizens were supportive of Arnel's actions.

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