S’pore woman says boy waiting behind ‘publicly shamed’ her for returning 29 cans at BCRS machine

A woman returning 29 cans and bottles at a Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) machine said she was “publicly shamed” by a primary school boy who grew impatient while waiting to return his two cans.

Chermaine Kumar was about halfway through depositing her items when the boy arrived with his helper and began commenting about the number of cans she had.

The boy allegedly did not ask to go first but instead expressed his frustration, exclaiming phrases like “Oh my God” and “I give up”.

The interaction was posted to Instagram, where netizens expressed mixed views with some saying that Kumar should've let the boy go before her while others felt the boy was entitled.

The boy complained that she had "hundreds" of cans

Speaking to Mothership, Kumar said the interaction happened on Oct. 20 at around 1:42pm.

She said no one was waiting when she arrived to deposit her two tote bags of recycled items.

About a minute later, she started feeding her items into the machine when the boy and his helper arrived.

When he saw Kumar’s bags, the boy made his first comment about how many cans she had.

Kumar told Mothership the boy’s helper appeared embarrassed but did not intervene.

The boy then became louder, at one point complaining that he had two cans and was waiting for Kumar to finish returning “500 cans”.

“I was stunned by the audacity and also started to feel stressed,” Kumar said.

She did not speak to the boy during the encounter and does not recall seeing him join the queue after making the remarks.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Chermaine 雪敏 (@chermainekumar)

Considered letting him go first

Kumar said she briefly considered letting the boy use the machine before she finished.

However, she ultimately decided against it because of the way he had behaved and because stopping midway would have been troublesome.

By the time Kumar had finished depositing her 29 cans, a queue had formed behind her, but she said no one else responded to the boy’s remarks.

The entire process of depositing her 29 cans took two minutes and 49 seconds, she said.

Courtesy or an expectation?

Kumar’s post prompted a discussion about whether someone with fewer cans should be allowed to go first.

While many viewers agreed that the boy should have waited his turn, others felt Kumar could have let him go first as a courtesy because he had only two cans.

In a follow-up video, Kumar questioned whether having fewer cans should automatically give someone priority.

She compared the situation to joining a supermarket queue with one packet of Mentos while the person in front had a trolley filled to the brim.

While she would hope to be allowed ahead, she said she would accept it if the person declined.

“If I were to ask the person nicely whether I could go first and the person said no, I need to accept that this person said no,” she said.

She added that even if the boy had asked, she would still have told him no because other people were also queueing behind her.

Otherwise, Kumar asked, what would happen if another person arrived with only one can? Would the boy then be expected to let that person go first?

“There’s a thing called the queue, and we need to respect the rules of the queue, which is first come, first served,” she said.

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Chermaine 雪敏 (@chermainekumar)

Kumar said the video was not intended to single out the boy

In response to Mothership's queries, she clarified that she did not intend to rant or single out the boy by sharing the video.

Her posts had begun as a “day in my life” style documentation, and the encounter was simply one of the moments captured that day, she said.

However, the responses prompted her to reflect on the broader questions of queueing, courtesy and how people navigate shared public spaces.

“Courtesy is important, but so is recognising that it involves consideration for everyone sharing the same space,” Kumar said.

She added that the discussion had highlighted the expectations placed on others to accommodate us, as well as the “often-overlooked costs” of giving way.

Kumar said she hoped the conversation would encourage people to think more deeply about balancing consideration for others with fairness, and about practising courtesy without treating it as an obligation.

Accumulated 29 items after four failed attempts to use the BCRS machine

Kumar later explained that the 29 cans had accumulated after she found the machine full on four previous visits.

The Oct. 20 visit was her fifth attempt to return them in eight days.

Kumar said she had contacted BCRS to report that the machine kept filling up.

She later learned that she could check the machine’s availability online.

Kumar said she rushed down after seeing on the BCRS portal that a machine in her estate had space for her returns.

“Because I already came five times, I was determined to clear all the cans that time,” she told Mothership.