Easy Ways to Avoid Wastage of Food

Food waste has environmental, economic as well as social impacts. The rising per capita income and expenditure, living standards, affordability and our careless behavior towards food is taking a significant toll on our finite resources.

In shopping malls, restaurants and eateries, it is common to see plates piled up with uneaten or partially eaten food. Unfortunately, affordability is leading to rampant increase in food waste generation all over the Middle East, especially GCC.

food-waste-qatar

للنفايات الغذائية آثار بيئية واقتصادية واجتماعية

 

The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that over 300 tons per day of food waste is being generated in Bahrain which constitutes around 11% of the total municipal waste. All this waste is dumped in bins and collected by Municipal Contractors and transported to Askar landfill site located some 25 km away from the city.

People in the Middle East must understand that we are importing major quantity of our food items and throwing it carelessly in the garbage is not feasible. It is estimated that around one fourth of all food purchased becomes rot and find its way to the garbage bin even before being used or eaten.

People tend to buy more than what they require or what they can consume and often leave the ‘ordered’ and ‘bought’ food half uneaten, which is in-appropriate to follow. Leaving the food behind is bad trend leading to more wastage as the food items bought are not being fully and efficiently utilized and ultimately end up in garbage bins.

In addition, the food wastage is more witnessed at buffets, where choices of dishes are many and quantity unlimited. The answer or attitude towards our food should be ‘take only what you can eat’.

iftar-party-food-waste

The cost of uncooked and cooked food has increased sharply in recent years, putting more pressure on domestic budgets of the bread earners who are already struggling to cope with other elevated costs of living, housing, medication, transportation etc. Food waste prevention is the number one task for us to help reduce the amount of biodegradable waste going to the bins and then to the landfill.

In addition, if we implement food waste collections, then we remove a large element of the biodegradable fraction from the waste bin. We also know that when food is sent to landfill it produces more greenhouse gases as it biodegrades.

The situation calls for developing better food habits and Take Only What You Can Eat attitude respecting Mother Nature. The “social and cultural solution” lies in the smart way of dealing with food and avoiding waste generation.

Let us practice the following easy ways to avoid wastage of food:

  • Buy specifically what you want and in actual quantities.
  • Buying food items especially fruits and vegetables in smaller quantities depending on use.
  • Optimize use of food items and eating the required food and even leftovers.
  • Don’t feel ashamed of taking/ packing ‘left overs’ in the parties, it does not affect your self esteem and reputation.
  • Daily checking the food items in your fridge/ deep freezer and in your fruit basket regarding items that may get rot/ expired. Utilize it or donate it before it becomes waste.
  • We need to follow our elders in “buying less and eating leftover food” which is becoming ‘out of fashion’ and ‘out of date’ due to our ‘modern day habits’.
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About Rehan Ahmad

Rehan Ahmed is currently working as Head of Waste Disposal Unit at Supreme Council for Environment, Kingdom of Bahrain. He has over thirty four years of professional experience on projects related to waste management, recycling, reuse and recovery & environmental impacts assessments. Rehan has been instrumental in construction, development, operation and management of Hafira industrial landfill site and establishment of healthcare waste treatment facility in Bahrain.

10 Responses to Easy Ways to Avoid Wastage of Food

  1. Myrtle Macdonald says:

    I am a typical retired Canadian living alone on a restricted budget. I use all the food I buy refrigerating it in air tight bags to keep it from wilting. I also grow herbs nearby and use some twice a day in soups and salads. I make my own soup and stew with lentils or noodles and three kinds of vegetable stems or herbs. Cooking time is 10 minutes or a little more sometimes. When I buy burger meat I make patties out of some and cook and crumble the rest. I freeze the patties and cook one later when needed. I freeze the cooked crumbled meat in very small amounts. Later I put a small spoonful in a soup or stew. Nothing gets wasted. If I have too much fruit I refrigerate or freeze some to eat later.

  2. Ronald W Garrison says:

    If I can believe the statistics I’ve read on food waste (though they’re so bad I don’t know if I can just take them at face value–could be disinformation), then it’s shameful, and much needs to be done to not waste so much. But I’m far more sure about what should be done about whatever waste is left. There have been movements in some places toward outlawing garbage disposals, apparently because of the load they put on sewage systems. Frankly, I find this appalling. We need to be going in the other direction. All that food rotting in dumpsters and trash carts is disgusting, unsanitary, and a source of atmospheric methane as well. Landfills are not equipped to deal with organic waste. Sewage treatment plants are. We need to be sending more of our food waste there.

  3. Myrtle Macdonald says:

    Food waste if not rotting, can be recycled and some of it made into meals by people who believe in that action. There are educated people who have lived for a year on not buying any food. They gather good food waste from markets and dumpsters. If it is rotting, it should be made into compost and then used to fertilize garden, orchards and grain fields. Cities in Ontario, Canada have a Green Bin system of collecting organic waste and making it into rich earth.

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