What is Food Waste?
Food waste occurs when food is uneaten and disposed of. The food can be any type of food - raw or cooked, expired or unexpired.
What is the situation of food waste in Hong Kong?
Currently, most of Hong Kong’s food waste is disposed of at landfills, rather than being recycled or composted. In 2019, 4.04 million tonnes of MSW (municipal solid waste) was disposed of at landfills. 1.21 million tonnes (30%) of MSW was food waste, comprising the largest MSW category being landfilled. Recently, the amount of food waste deriving from the C&I (commercial and industrial) sector has increased from around 800 tonnes per day to over 1,000 tonnes per day between 2012 and 2019.
Currently, our dumping of biodegradable food waste at landfills is not sustainable as we are depleting the amount of space in landfills. This renders lots of the waste unable to be put into landfills. Necessitating the burning of this excess waste which leads to severe air pollution.
The best alternative to dumping all this waste is to recycle it. However , only 49200 tonnes of the 1.21 million tonnes was recycled, a minimal 4.06% of the total waste. The other 95.94% was sent straight to landfills.
Why do we produce food waste?
Generally, Food waste can occur due to buying and cooking too much food or letting food spoil beyond its expiry date. In Hong Kong, the primary reasons for food waste are:
the affordable price of food,
overly large portions served at restaurants
people being too selective about food, hence not finishing all.
Societal custom of having to order more than enough when treating others at restaurants as a form of respect
improper storage of food.
During the pandemic in particular, people have purchased excessive amounts of food, whether it be takeaway or groceries, and failed to finish it all. Leading to even larger food wastes.
The impacts of food waste
Food waste that ends up in landfills will rot away, generating a large amount of methane- a greenhouse gas with 25 times the global warming potential as carbon dioxide. Excess amounts of greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and heat up the atmosphere, resulting in increased global warming and climate change. Food that is left to rot in landfills also has an impact on land biodiversity in the surrounding areas, polluting waterways and groundwater sources. Furthermore, it also generates pungent smells, leachate and landfill gases that require further resources to mitigate.
How we as Gen-Z can reduce food waste
Research has shown that Gen-Z’s are the main creators of food waste. This is largely due to a lack of education and understanding the problems which food waste gives rise to. Additionally, most of us have eaten school meals for the whole of our lives, and haven’t been required to actually plan and shop for groceries before, leading to an inability to plan meals sustainably.
As Gen-Z’s, there are a couple of practices we can integrate into our daily lives to minimize the food waste we produce.
Refrain from buying too much- Even though stacking up the refrigerator is appealing and satisfying, it can easily result in food waste if your family cannot finish all of the food before it expires. Take shorter, more frequent trips to the supermarket rather than buying everything in one go. Following shopping lists can prevent reckless buying of unnecessary food as well.
Organize foods- Make sure you know when your foods are purchased. Place newly bought food at the back of the refrigerator to ensure that your older foods are consumed first. This can prevent food from being unnecessarily wasted due to expiration .
Store foods suitably- Store your foods in sealed containers and at low temperatures to prevent your foods from spoiling. Also make sure that raw and cooked food are stored separately, as bacteria from raw food can contaminate cold cooked food, making it inedible.
Eat leftovers- If you don’t finish your food, make it a habit to store it in a container and save it for later. Most food waste comes from leftovers and unfinished meals.
Compost scraps- When you prepare a meal, you often have to remove unusable bits of food. Instead of throwing these in the bin, you can compost them. If you have outdoor space at home, you can fill a bin with soil, leaves and newspaper to bury your food scraps. Stir it at least once a day to allow air inside and enable decomposition of the waste. If you don’t happen to have outdoor space at home, you can drop waste off at community composting bins. You can also lobby your favourite restaurants to install an ORCA, a composter that turns food waste into a liquid that can safely flow into the sewage system.
By following these simple steps, you can easily reduce the amount of food waste that goes to landfills each year. Engaging in environmentally-friendly practices is essential for a sustainable future and Earth. Hence it is our responsibility as GenZ's to pioneer this change.
Sources:
Writer: Isaac Chow
Editor: Eric Wang
Artist: Jennifer Pun
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