Macau | Only 22 businesses have joined food waste collection scheme initiated in 2012 – Environmental bureau

Macau (MNA) – As of June 2018, only 22 food and beverage businesses have joined the Environmental Protection Bureau’s (DSPA) pilot project for Collection of Food Waste from Food & Beverage Establishments despite this having been rolled out in 2012.

Six years ago the DSPA installed food waste processing equipment in the Macau Solid Waste Incineration Centre and launched a pilot scheme for collecting food surpluses produced in food and beverage establishments unable to install food waste treatment equipment. It also offered training for the establishment’s staff in regard to correct separation and treatment of kitchen waste.

Processed waste from the treatment of food surpluses is to be used for urban afforestation and plant fertilisation.

According to information provided by the department to MNA, from 2012 to June 2018, some 755 tonnes of food waste have been collected through the scheme.

When questioned by MNA on the low rate of adherence by local establishments, DSPA stated that it has actively promoted food waste recycling at different levels and that since 2016 it has collected food waste from supermarkets, banks and hospitals, as well as providing food waste recycling training and introduction.

The DSPA also indicated that it would try to expand the scheme to more SME’s, while appealing to the hotel and catering industries to fulfill their social responsibilities and avoid secondary pollution.

The DSPA 2017 environmental report indicated that ‘organic material’ represented 27.4 per cent of the total 510,702 tonnes of solid waste collected in 2017, or around 139,932 tonnes.

Meanwhile DSPA and Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (IACM) collected only around 237 tonnes of food waste in 2017 through their food waste treatment programmes, 7.3 per cent more than in the year prior.

The amount of water present in food waste increases the amount of energy dispensed by the Refuse Incineration Plant burning the waste, with the most recent report indicating that carbon dioxide emissions by the plant went up 16.7 per cent yearly in 2016.

The department indicated that a food processing machine with a daily capacity of 1,000 kilos was installed last year in the plant, with a pilot kitchen waste processor capable  installed in the public housing of Seac Pai Van this year, which has already processed some 9,000 kilos of food waste.

The report also indicates that the average person produced 2.16 kilos of solid waste per day in the city, an increase of 2.9 per cent from last year and higher compared to neighbouring regions such as Singapore (1.49 kilos) Hong Kong (1.41 kilos), Beijing (1.10 kilos), Guangzhou (0.98 kilos) and Shanghai (0.71 kilos).