Penang islanders waste a mountain of food

355,000 kilos go to the rubbish dump every day, says CAP.

GEORGE TOWN: Residents of Penang island throw away 355,000 kilos of food every day, according to official figures.

Quoting statistics provided by the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP), the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) said today that food accounted for 45% of the 288,377 tonnes of solid waste collected throughout last year from residential and commercial areas on the island.

“Malaysians are greedy,” said CAP president SM Mohamed Idris as he presented the figures at a press conference here. “They have the habit of piling their plate with food” that they cannot finish eating.

He said a CAP survey had revealed that food wasters in the country ran the gamut from households to food retailers to hawkers, restaurants and hotels.

According to the survey results, restaurants throw away 5% to 10% of cooked food every day.

Some owners of restaurants that also provide catering services admitted through the survey that 15% to 20% of food served during festive seasons and for private celebrations were wasted because of poor planning and poor turnouts.

CAP held today’s press conference in celebration of World Environment Day, which falls tomorrow. This year’s theme is “Think, eat, save”.

“Food waste is an enormous drain on natural resources and a contributor to negative environmental impacts,” said Idris.

“If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of the food are also lost.”

He lamented that Malaysians were apparently not appreciative of food and unconcerned about starving populations elsewhere in the world.

War against wastage

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), every day one in seven people go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children below the age of five were dying of hunger.

Meanwhile, 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted around the globe yearly. This is equivalent to the total amount of food produced in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Global food production takes up 25% of all habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change,” said Idris.

Therefore, he added, one of the easiest ways to prevent the depletion of natural resources was to wage a war against food wastage.

“Each individual should play his role by pledging to not waste food.”

He urged parents and teachers to teach children to appreciate every morsel of food they take and called on the authorities to punish those guilty of wastage.