Bulletin No. 1, 2016

CA$H Coupon FOOD WASTE 8 Chinese University Bulletin No. 1, 2016 Reduction of Food Waste Food waste is collected at the collection and recycling facilities on campus Food waste is transported to 5 composting machines on campus Capacity: ~200 kg food waste per day Canteen cash coupons are awarded to diners with no leftovers At CUHK Canteens Food Waste Composting Machines ‘Clean the Plate; Get a Prize’ volunteered as ‘Save Food Ambassadors’ to spread the ‘Waste no Food’ message CUHK students 83 Students and staff are encouraged to order ‘less rice’ whenever necessary Canteens are now offering option for ‘less rice’ A mong all the above-stated reasons, the problem of food waste has attracted much media attention, as a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations reveals that if we are able to save one- fourth of the food currently lost or wasted, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people in the world. Food lost or wasted also has negative impacts on the environment. It has been stated in the FAO report that if global food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after the US and China. In Hong Kong, unconsumed food is the largest municipal solid waste category being landfilled. Discarded food produces methane, which becomes a primary source of greenhouse gas at the landfill sites. As a university committed to environmental conservation, we have made the reduction and recycling of food waste one of our priorities. Since 2013, a series of activities has been launched in CUHK under the ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign to reduce food waste on campus (see illustration below). The quantity of food waste is estimated to have been dropped by 26% in the two-year period and the number of diners without leftover increased by nearly 20%. Although the University and some NGOs are recycling unconsumed food products and turning them into useful compost in Hong Kong, there is still more food waste than we can handle. To save the city from expanding landfills and increasing emission of greenhouse gases, the long-term solution is to reduce waste at source—order and take only what you can finish, which has been promoted and practised at every eatery on CUHK campus. The combined effects of climate change and air pollution on the reduction in agricultural products are not the only reasons contributing to famine or malnutrition. How food is distributed and priced and how much is consumed or wasted also play a major part in the world’s hunger problem.