PROTECTING THE PLANET

 Akila Wijerathna says that reducing food waste will curtail greenhouse gases

Food waste is defined by the FAO as “the discarding or alternative use of food that is safe and nutritious for human consumption.” Around 30 percent of all food produced globally is wasted each year. It causes serious negative implications with huge costs for all sections of the food supply chain.

In Sri Lanka, like elsewhere in the world, it’s an economic cost for businesses and waste management, an environmental cost for the country due to limited landfill capacity, and a social cost for actors in the supply chain as well as the end consumer.

Sri Lanka generates 8,000 tons of solid waste each day; and of that, about 80 percent of the organic waste is short-term biodegradable food waste.

Annual food wastage estimates in Sri Lanka range up to 30 percent and daily food waste can be estimated at 5,000 MT. This is due to inefficient production, storage and transport solutions in some parts of the island, as well as unsustainable consumer behaviour.

Those who can afford to overstock invariably buy more than necessary and serve far more from buffets than what one person can consume. Some get hooked on ‘buy one get one free’ promotions.

Consumer expectations and demands require supermarkets to offer various product lines that are inexpensive. So it’s much easier to throw away something cheap rather than a product that is expensive.

Asian Development Bank statistics for Sri Lanka show that around four percent of the population lives below the poverty line – i.e. about 800,000 citizens manage on less than Rs. 10,000 a month. Yet, according to officials of the Waste Management Authority, an estimated 500 MT of food is discarded daily as garbage in the Western Province alone.

Food loss occurs throughout the supply chain as produce is transported from farmers to consumers with the largest losses taking place during transportation and retailing. Towards the end of the chain, the potential economic benefit of reducing waste increases since money and resources
are invested at every stage of the value chain.

Developing countries face major food losses due to financial and structural limitations in harvesting techniques, storage and transport infrastructure combined with challenging climatic conditions.

Food waste can pollute water, degrade the soil and increase emissions of greenhouse gases if it is improperly disposed of. When food isn’t consumed, the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport and package it is also wasted.

And indeed, food waste is one of the many issues at the crossroads of climate action and social justice. Its large emissions footprint comes not only from all the energy needed to ship, process and produce the food that ends up in the trash but also from the harmful methane fumes that are emitted during decomposition in landfills.

Therefore, implementing food waste management has become a critical part of ensuring a sustainable environment for Sri Lankans in the long term. It plays an important role in reducing the amount of food waste being sent to landfills and reduces the emission of greenhouse gases.

The FAO suggests that by improving agricultural practices at the point of production, maintaining a better balance between production and demand, managing food surplus by reusing it, finding secondary markets or donating it, and recycling and recovering when reuse is not possible, the world can combat food waste.

With effective sorting and repurposing, food waste can be a valuable resource for producing biofuels, chemicals, animal feed and compost.

Like many other countries across the world, reusing food waste is not yet a common practice in Sri Lanka. Therefore, by building anaerobic digestion or co-digestion facilities in local sludge treatment plants, biogas and fertiliser can be produced from waste.

Public awareness and engagement have long been barriers to classifying and packaging urban waste. Municipal garbage sorting largely relies on scavengers and workers at sanitation stations. As the market value of food scraps is much lower than recyclables such as paper and plastic, both formal and informal sectors are reluctant to sort food waste thoroughly without financial incentives.

Additionally, by promoting the adoption of mechanised agriculture and improving the design of farm machinery to ensure that crops are harvested efficiently, food loss at the farm level will also reduce.

Increasing access to modern storage facilities will help reduce the amount of food lost in storage. Where this isn’t possible, education and availability of pest management tools will assist farmers in managing the storage facilities on their farms.

Reducing food waste in retail and household settings will require legislative and regulatory change. While the central government has begun to make these changes, changing the attitude of the public to this will be a far more challenging task.

Implementing food waste management has become a critical part of ensuring a sustainable environment for Sri Lankans in the long term