Here are some of the most recent efforts in Singapore taken to reduce food waste.

Save Food Cut Waste (managed by Zero Waste SG)

This movement is a bottom-up initiative managed by the nonprofit and non-governmental association Zero Waste SG. It educates individuals, businesses and organizations in Singapore about the environmental and social impacts of food waste and encourages everyone to act on reducing food waste.

Some actions recommended by the movement to reduce food waste are to cook at home, accept ‘ugly produce’ and being mindful of one’s food purchase patterns. The site also reports examples and instances of community efforts to take steps to reduce food waste in Singapore. Public education on the severity of food waste and its effects are also available online and by live programs.

Sign their pledge to commit to reducing food waste today!

Food Waste Reduction Campaign 2019

The Food Waste Reduction (FWR) Campaign 2019 under the National Environmental Agency (NEA) was launched on 16 February 2019 by Dr. Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, at Yishun Park Hawker Centre. The campaign aims to create a pervasive culture within Singapore where it is instinctual for all to ‘buy, order and cook just enough’, and encourage those around them towards reducing food waste.

Three key actions have been highlighted for consumers to adopt to reduce food waste:

1. Order only what you can finish
2. Ask for less rice/noodles if you can’t finish them
3. Say ‘No’ to side dishes you won’t eat

Visual reminders in public areas such as wobblers, tabletop stickers, and advertising graphics will provide timely reminders and behavioral cues to consumers to be mindful of their food purchase habits and actions they can take to reduce food waste. Publicity is carried out on both outdoor and digital platforms, and an edutainment web series that will shadows public personas will be developed to show how they incorporate food waste reduction practices into their day-to-day lives, and lead viewers to adopt food waste reduction habits by example.

Waste to energy experimentation

NEA has also started a pilot project that explores the viability of utilizing the co-digestion of food waste and used water sludge to produce biogas from anaerobic digestion. Source-segregated food waste collected from various places is transported to a demonstration facility located at the Ulu Pandan Water Reclamation Plant, which began operations in 2016. If successful, the process could potentially be implemented at NEA’s future Integrated Waste Management Facility and PUB’s Tuas Water Reclamation Plant, which will be situated in the same location.