--- title: "Actress ‘publicly shamed’ by boy who lamented wait as she returned 29 cans and bottles at BCRS machine" url: "/trending-now/actress-publicly-shamed-boy-who-lamented-wait-she-returned-29-cans-and-bottles-bcrs-machine" published: "2026-10-22T08:11:59.000Z" updated: "2026-10-22T09:06:32.000Z" section: "Trending Now" authors: ["Trixy Toh"] tags: ["TNP News","actress","boy","bcrs","queue","recycle"] --- # Actress ‘publicly shamed’ by boy who lamented wait as she returned 29 cans and bottles at BCRS machine *While depositing 29 cans and bottles at a Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) machine, actress Chermaine Kumar claimed she was “publicly shamed” by a boy who had just two cans to return.* While depositing 29 cans and bottles at a Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) machine, actress Chermaine Kumar claimed she was “publicly shamed” by a boy who had just two cans to return. Kumar recounted the incident in an Instagram video posted on Oct 21, raising questions about queue etiquette and courtesy. The video is a follow-up to an earlier clip posted on Oct 20, in which Kumar films herself rushing to return two bags of containers at a BCRS machine. As she deposits the cans, a boy can be heard shouting in the background that he only has two cans to deposit but has to wait for someone who is depositing “500 cans”. “That rude xiaodi’s attitude really CANNOT la,” the caption read. ## ‘Would you let someone with just 2 cans go first?’ Actress asks In her latest video, Kumar recounts the encounter, saying she was “publicly shamed” by a primary school boy who “didn’t want to wait” for her to finish returning her recyclables. “If you were in my shoes, would you let someone with just 2 cans go first?” the on-screen caption reads. The video then cuts to a snippet of Kumar depositing the recyclables at the machine, while a boy can be heard saying: “Oh my god, I give up. She got 200 cans.” The boy then shouts: “I have two cans, waiting for 500 cans.” ![actress publicly shamed boy cans BCRS queue](https://cassette.sphdigital.com.sg/image/stomp/3b8d59294f7066140b1202dcb066efa6ff3699f573519da902280de42ba13856) *A boy shouted that he had only two cans but was waiting for someone with “500 cans”* Kumar notes that while most people agreed that the boy should have continued waiting for his turn because “that’s the point of a queue”, some also felt she should have let him go first “as a form of courtesy”. The incident, she says, got her thinking about what courtesy means in a public space. “Does having fewer cans mean that you are going to get priority and people should accommodate you?” she questions. Kumar then asks whether letting the boy go first, simply because he expected her to, would still be considered courteous. She draws a comparison to a hypothetical situation at a supermarket where she is queuing with just “one Mentos” while the person in front has a full trolley. “If I were to ask the person nicely whether I can go first and the person said ‘no’, I need to accept that this person said ‘no’,” she says. “There’s a thing called the queue, and we need to respect the rules of the queue, which is first come first serve,” Kumar stresses. Looking back, if the boy had asked to return his cans first, Kumar says she would have said no, as others were queuing behind her as well. “Do I have to say yes to every single one of them?” she questions. In her caption, Kumar clarified that the boy had not been queuing and had “appeared at the walkway with his helper” mid-way through her deposit. “Upon seeing that I had 2 bags, he immediately gave up, making those comments,” she wrote, adding that the boy “lacked resilience on top of his impatience.” ## ‘I get the frustration... But I would never express it like that’ Speaking to Stomp, Kumar said the encounter took place at around 1.40pm on Oct 20. She recalled feeling “quite stunned” when the boy shouted at her, saying it was “audacious” of him to express his intention that way. “I get the frustration... But I would never express it like that,” she said, stressing that having fewer cans does not automatically entitle someone to go first. Kumar said she turned to look at the boy and saw the helper having a “very embarrassed look on her face”, yet she stopped short of intervening. Despite the incident, Kumar said she continued depositing her containers. As for why she was depositing so many recyclables at once, Kumar explained that the BCRS machine had been full on all four of her previous attempts to return the cans and bottles. ## ‘He needs to learn to wait’: Netizens Kumar’s video amassed more than 94,000 views and 570 comments, with many netizens supporting her stance. One user felt that children should learn the “hard way” instead of having everything handed to them. Another netizen said the boy appeared to be throwing a tantrum and should be considerate of others in the queue. “He needs to learn to wait, the world doesn’t revolve around him,” a commenter wrote. Many criticised the boy’s behaviour, with one netizen calling the boy “rude” while another noted that courtesy is “appreciated when extended, not demanded or expected.” “The more he complained, the longer I would take to finish feeding my cans,” a user said.