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KUALA LUMPUR: Do you remember how bread, rice, eggs, mineral water, and other essential items flew off the shelves of grocery stores and supermarkets when the government announced the motion control order (MCO) in March?
The panic buying scenario was repeated recently when the Conditional MCO (CMCO) was reimposed in certain states to halt the surge in Covid-19 cases.
When a large quantity of a certain food remains uneaten and its shelf life has expired, it inevitably ends up in the garbage can. This brings to mind photos of unopened bread packages lying in a trash heap that went viral on social media during MCO and invoked the ire of netizens.
Food waste is a perpetual problem in Malaysia and according to the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleaning Corporation (SWCorp), the household sector accounts for 44.5% of the 16,667.5 tonnes of food waste that generated daily in Malaysia.
Approximately 24% or 4,005 tons of food waste is classified as still edible, with enough to provide 2,970,000 people a day three meals.
Silver lining
The MCO period, however, had a positive side as there was a marked decrease in the amount of food waste that ended up in landfills.
According to SWCorp’s Director of Federal Territories, Mohd Zahir Shari, daily food waste in Kuala Lumpur averaged 2.1 tons in March and fell to 1.7 tons per day in April.
The decrease was attributed to most restaurants offering takeout and home delivery and their shorter hours of operation, as well as cancellation of wedding functions and other events and meetings.
The fact that hotels and restaurants were not allowed to offer buffets during the MCO also resulted in a decrease, as buffets are known to be among the largest contributors to food waste.
“During that period, most of the people stayed home and cooked or opted for packaged food from outside, but they consumed all the food since they were confined at home,” Zahir told Bernama.
However, he said that when the MCO entered the conditional and recovery phases, the food waste figures in Kuala Lumpur began to climb again to an average of 2.2 to 2.3 tons per day in June and July, when movement restrictions were eased and most economic sectors reopened.
According to SWCorp’s Waste Composition Study, the average amount of food waste generated during the MCO period and Ramadan showed a 40.9% reduction compared to last year.
“We hope that people will continue to take the initiative to reduce the amount of solid waste that is disposed of on a daily basis through self-regulation and attitude change,” he said.
Excess food
Noting that food waste can be classified as “avoidable” and “unavoidable,” Zahir said the former includes uneaten food, while the latter includes fruit peels, bones and other uneatable kitchen scraps.
Unavoidable waste can be composted that can be used as a garden fertilizer.
He said that SWCorp is collaborating with NGOs and waste management concessionaire Alam Flora Sdn Bhd to convert food waste into fertilizer using its anaerobic digestion plant located at its innovative recycling facility in Precinct 5, Putrajaya.
“The anaerobic digester can carry up to 50 kg of food waste and we are encouraging residents of the surrounding areas to make use of this facility,” he said.
Meanwhile, to reduce food waste, Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia CEO Ab Wahab Long said he is working with various NGOs and supermarkets to collect surplus unsold food and channel it to needy people residing in the Popular Housing Projects (PPR) and welfare homes, as well as the homeless community.
Wahab said they can collect more than 1,000 kg of food a day from hotels, supermarkets, wholesale markets and food factories in the Klang Valley.
“Wholesale markets, for example, tend to get rid of a lot of unsold raw vegetables, fruits and foods that are still in good condition. We go to those places to ‘save’ food from the landfill, ”he said.
During the MCO period, he said, they also collected dry food and other grocery items that are nearing their expiration date to distribute to college students stranded on campus.
Wahab said his organization, established in January 2019, has proposed to the government that a National Food Banking Month be introduced to raise more awareness among people about the evils of food waste.
He said that to date, Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia has distributed surplus unsold food to 622,726 households and 77,251 students from 195 universities.
