We have arrived at the last phase of the journey taken by our food products: Disposal. While more has grown aware of the previous stages of food production and consumption and the related impacts that they have on the environment, disposal of food and food-related waste has often been left out of the equation.
Most forms of food and food-related waste end up in landfills or in incineration plants. This is because we, as consumers, end up taking the easiest route out and labelling all these waste as trash and not sorting them out to what can be recycled, composted, reused and ‘true’ waste. In fact, this was not always the case. Up as recently as the mid 20th century, many municipalities used to collect food waste separately from trash, which was then directed to pig farms after disinfections (Capes & Carpenter, 1918). Maybe we ought to learn a thing or two from the past indeed. To reduce cost, most countries have chosen to bury their food waste together with regular waste in landfills as they biodegrade rather easily. In countries like the US, such policies have resulted in food waste accounting for about 20% of all waste buried in landfills (US EPA, 2015). Unfortunately, cost-saving policies are not always the most environmentally friendliest. The decomposition of the food waste results in methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 25 times more effective in trapping radiation than CO2 in a 100-year period, which accounts for 11% of global methane emissions (Global Methane Initiative, 2020). Additionally, the process also causes odour and potentially adds toxins to the leachate (Chu et al., 2019). This toxin-potent leachate can also find its way to local water sources and the groundwater, contaminating them. Well, it is not just food scraps that are disposed of. Food packaging, most that are made from plastics, are also tossed into our trash as well. You can learn about the environmental impacts caused by the disposal of plastic bottles by watching the video below (TED-Ed, 2015).
In other countries like Singapore, organic matters are not allowed on to our landfills for the reasons above (Tan & Khoo, 2006). Instead, most are diverted to incineration plants where they are burned under high temperature. This directly contributes to the emission of pollutants such as sulphur oxides, nitrous oxides as well as volatile organic compounds (ibid.). You can learn about the entire incineration journey in Singapore from the video below (The Straits Times, 2018).
However, such approaches to food and food-related waste are not sustainable for the environment, especially with situations such as COVID-19 making it trickier to reduce food packaging. Hence, we need to reconsider how we approach waste itself and the next post would talk about an idea we are rather familiar with but somehow find it hard to do: Recycling.
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
Capes, W.P. and Carpenter, J.D. (1918). Municipal housecleaning; the methods and experiences of American cities in collecting and disposing of their municipal wastes, ashes, rubbish, garbage, manure, sewage, and street refuse. New York, Dutton.
Chu, Z., Fan, X., Wang, W. and Huang, W.C. (2019). Quantitative evaluation of heavy metals’ pollution hazards and estimation of heavy metals’ environmental costs in leachate during food waste composting. Waste Management, 84, pp.119-128.
Global Methane Initiative (2020). Global Methane Emissions and Mitigation Opportunities. [online] Available at: https://www.globalmethane.org/documents/gmi-mitigation-factsheet.pdf [Accessed 31 Oct. 2020].
Tan, R.B.H. and Khoo, H.H. (2006). Impact Assessment of Waste Management Options in Singapore. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, [online] 56(3), pp.244–254. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10473289.2006.10464463 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2020].
TED-Ed (2015). What really happens to the plastic you throw away – Emma Bryce. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8&ab_channel=TED-Ed [Accessed 31 Oct. 2020].
The Straits Times (2018). Where does your rubbish go? | Singapore Works | The Straits Times. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYKANHHiBLs&ab_channel=TheStraitsTimes [Accessed 31 Oct. 2020].
US EPA (2015). Sustainable Management of Food Basics | US EPA. [online] US EPA. Available at: https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/sustainable-management-food-basics [Accessed 31 Oct. 2020].
