Food

Ben Joseph Murphy (SOC), Gerald Neo Ee Ren (SOC), Reno Sam Wei Jie (FASS), Zhou Qi (SOC)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

Food wastage is a pressing concern worldwide. Within RVRC, accumulation of unaccounted and expired food in refrigerators produces large amounts of food waste. Our objective was to enhance the current food labeling system in RVRC fridges through digitization, while providing a convenient platform for food sharing, thereby reducing food waste. We implemented a Telegram bot that i) logs items placed into fridges, ii) reminds users near expiry, and iii) stores a database of shared food items that users can access. Within the two blocks where we did the pilot implementation, there was high uptake (52% of residents), and consistent engagement with the bot. Fair levels of sharing through the bot also demonstrated significant potential of a convenient sharing system in reducing food waste. We conclude that the bot has application in RVRC pantries beyond the pilot, as it successfully enhances the food labeling system and reduces food wastage through sharing.

Ho Jia Jiin (FOS), Justin Low Jun Ting (FOS), Mi Yang (FOS), Rui Qin (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

Food wastage, one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases, is increasingly pervasive in Singapore. RVRC’s dining hall discards on average, 5.28kg of unserved cooked rice from trays daily. We aim to alleviate rice wastage by upcycling the unserved rice into a desirable consumable product for RVRC students. We formulated an easy-to-follow recipe to produce tasty bread made from white and brown rice and proposed the recipe to the dining hall caterers for serving during breakfast. We surveyed students regarding its appearance, taste, and its desirability in comparison to the store brought bread currently served by dining hall. Our rice bread was well-received by RVRC residents, demostrating that our recipe produces a desirable product and could effectively tackle rice wastage in the long run. We will be sharing the recipe with the dining hall committee to discuss ways of serving rice bread made from leftover rice in the dining hall.

Eric Bryan (FOE), Kennard Orlando Wijaya (FOE), Megan Mak Yuk Cheng (SDE), Wu Luoyu (FOE)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Corinne Ong

Ugly fruit wastage occurs at every stage of its life cycle. This significantly contributes to fruit wastage, which together with vegetables amounts to half of the food wastage in Singapore (Judith Tan and Vanessa Liu, 2020). The root cause of this is the “beauty-is-good” mindset, resulting in cosmetic filtering. To tackle this issue, we aim to shift RVRC students’ consumer demand which is expected to encourage Dining Hall vendor to minimise fruit wastage and hopefully suppliers, in the future. A blind test juicing booth was conducted to persuade RVRC students that ugly fruits are just as tasty and nutritional as appealing fruits. From our surveys and focus group discussions, we found out that our booth has influenced RVRC students to consume ugly fruits, which justifies our recommendations to the Dining Hall vendor to consider accepting and serving ugly fruits in the near future and the long run.

Nicholas Tan Wei Han (FOE), Tan Hui Wen, Shervon (SDE), Tan Li Cher (FOE), Vankamamidi Sree Lekha (SDE)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Corinne Ong

Forgotten food in fridges has always been one of the main reasons for food wastage in Singapore, including RVRC. Increased awareness of food left in fridges can reduce food wastage. Hence, our approach aims to make food stored in RVRC’s fridges easily trackable while increasing student users’ awareness of when their food expires. We conducted and created i) a pre- and post- implementation survey to understand food wastage patterns; ii) a telegram bot with a food expiry reminder system; iii) boxes to compartmentalise the fridge for residents. We aim to determine the effectiveness of the implementations through i) user feedback and results weekly surveys over the course of one month; ii) data on wastage levels from the monthly fridge cleaning exercise. we believe that through a thorough analysis of the experiment, we will be able to conclude which implementation is more effective in reducing food wastage in RVRC’s fridges.

Chen Ge (FOE), Justin Fidelis Wong Jun Wen (FOE), Tristan Tan Yong Cheun (FOE), Xie YuWen Cheryl (SDE)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Corinne Ong

Waste management has always been a challenge in Singapore due to lack of landfill space. The widespread usage of single-use packaging, especially when coupled with low recycling rates, is unsustainable. Our objective was to test the feasibility of a long-term zero-waste snack store in NUS, and measure its effectiveness at (i) reducing single-use packaging consumption and (ii) changing consumer attitudes toward packaging. We conducted a pre-survey to gather information about RVRC students’ consumption habits and snack preferences. Our store was then operated for 4 weeks in RVRC. It was unmanned, sold loose snacks sourced from zero-waste suppliers, and required customers to use their own containers at purchase. We then conducted a post-survey to measure if habits had changed over the duration. According to the data collected to-date, there was sustained interest and purchases throughout the project duration, suggesting our success in reducing packaging waste generation.

Leong Hoi Mun, Charlene (FOS), Liu SiYi (FOS), Meng Qiaoran (FOS), Utkarsh Pundir (FOS), , & Wang Zixuan (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

RVRC’s monthly food wastage was about 1209kg, or approximately 20kg per meal. Food wastage has been a persistent problem in RVRC. We aim to investigate the effectiveness of peer support on encouraging students to reduce their plate wastage. We recruited five groups of students to participate in our project. From pre-campaign focus group discussions, we gauged their general attitudes and behaviors towards food waste, allowing us to better tailor our peer support techniques. During the three weeks of campaign, participants were tasked to motivate each other to reduce their plate waste through a peer support system. We collected data on the amount of plate waste for two dinners weekly. Furthermore, we provided weekly “dinner table topics” to actively engage the participants in the peer support system. A post-campaign discussion was carried out and the responses indicated a positive impact from peer support in reducing food waste.

Loh Jean Way (FASS), Tan Yit Hien (SOC), Teh Pei Ling (FASS), Zhu Yuhao (BIZ)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

In 2019, 744,000 tons of food waste was generated in Singapore, with only 18 percent of it being recycled. This indicates that more than 500,000 tons of food waste was left unrecycled on a national level, making this a concerning issue. By leveraging on social media and a website, we wanted to reach out and teach creative ways to turn fruit waste into edible food products. We designed a website to showcase some of our recipes using fruit waste and an Instagram page to engage with the younger audience. Pre-and-post taste test surveys for our products were also deployed in order to ‘convince’ consumers to adopt these new habits. By tapping on youths and technology, many individuals are now aware of how they can do their part against fruit waste in Singapore.

Alphonsus Teow Rui Jie (FOE), Lee Jiahui (FOE), Nan Song (FOE), Rickson Ooi Jia Le (FOE)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

Meat consumption generates a significant carbon footprint, accounting for 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions (FAO, 2020). This necessitates the search for alternative protein sources such as crickets as they are high in nutrition and environmentally sustainable. However, these are not widely accepted due to low awareness and aversion. We aim to increase the awareness and willingness in youth in accepting entomophagy. We created an Instagram page, sharing the nutritional and environmental benefits of entomophagy. Hands on workshops were conducted to enable participants to try out cricket flour products. After both workshops and our Instagram campaign, our surveys showed a 92.6% increase in awareness of the nutritional benefits and a 93.2% increase in willingness to consume cricket flour-based foods. Hence, the combination of our workshops and Instagram page has shown to be effective in increasing the awareness and willingness to consume cricket-based food amongst youth.

Abhishek Jain (SOC), Cheng Yu Feng (SOC), Khin Hnin Su (FASS), Lee Yat Bun (SOC)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

Household food waste is a prevalent issue in Singapore, mainly generated from leftovers and expired food items (Liu, 2020). Similarly, food waste in RVRC stems from excess meal enhancements (perishable) and packaged food items (non-perishable) being discarded unconsumed (n = 73). Our project aims to reduce these categories of food waste. We installed a central collection point at two pantries, supported by a Telegram Bot and channel, for residents to share food in a timely manner instead of disposing it. Our pilot test conducted for 4 weeks successfully redirected over 90% of food items left at our station (n = 54). Residents identified convenience and anonymity of our digital platform as key factors that alleviated their initial hesitation towards food sharing. Given the high adoption rates and effectiveness of our solution, we aim to convince the college to adopt it long-term.

Lin Yu En (FASS), Papattarada Apithanangsiri (SOC), Tay Hui Loo Violette (BIZ) & Wong Chee Hong (SOC)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

Meat consumption has been normalized in Singaporean youths as they consume up to three to five times more meat than is environmentally sustainable. This creates a significant carbon footprint. Studies have shown that nudging is an effective way towards behavioral change especially when combined with other informational tools. As such, we embarked on a social media campaign and developed a mobile application to function as tools to nudge students towards pursuing meat-reduced diets in a seamless and sustainable manner.

Our mobile application mainly includes i) nearest vegetarian stalls locator ii) push notifications iii) nutritional tracker iv) vegetarian recipes recommendation. With the use of mobile application and social media platform, focus group participants expressed greater interest and ease in pursuing meat-reduced alternatives. Hence, nudging students through the use of mobile application and social media platform proved effective in changing students’ behaviors towards meat-reduced diet.

Tian Xiao (FOS), Hew Li Yang (FOS), Liu Xinran (FOS), Ong Weng Qi (FOS), Wayne Gareth Koh (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

Our choice of food has a significant impact on the environment, especially in terms of the greenhouse gases emitted during production. However, our preliminary survey results showed that NUS students do not practice sustainable eating habits. Inspiration for our project was drawn from Duolingo’s leaderboard system as a form of motivation for increased performance. Therefore, we conducted a two-week observational study with a tracker and leaderboard system, to examine whether such a method of positive persuasion would encourage students to eat more sustainably. A scoring system was also designed to quantify the sustainability of common food ingredients. We updated participants daily on their scores for the day, to enable them to track their progress over the course of data collection. Our results concluded that the leaderboard system was successful in influencing more environmentally sustainable eating habits.

Christopher Leo Mervyn (SOC), Neil Gupta (SOC), Rachel Ho Zune Mei Pwint (FASS), Rajendran Ramesh Babu Gauthama Siddarth (FOE), Schubert Goh Yee Chen (SOC)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

Food waste due to cosmetic filtering of ‘ugly foods’ – misshapen or bruised produce, has increased the annual total food waste in Singapore from 606,100 tonnes in 2009 to 763,100 tonnes in 2018 (NEA, 2018). According to the Electrolux Survey (2019), 25% customers do not pick ugly produce. Our survey of NUS students (n=55) identified price as a key factor, in line with the Electrolux Survey results – nearly 50% respondents were willing to purchase cheaper priced ugly foods. Our project objective was to test these findings. We set-up a booth in NUS to sell normal and ugly bananas, priced differentially. Data collected from two days of sale found that 56% customers (n=60) purchased ugly bananas. 90% customers also indicated that they would purchase ugly foods from other sources at discounted prices. Our findings confirm that lower prices can incentive consumers to purchase ugly foods, and mitigate the problem of food waste.

Ng Jin Hong (FOS), Oon Qian Chern (FASS), Yap Yu Liang (FASS)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Wong Kah Wei

Repurposing is essential to reduce the amount of waste put into landfills and the amount of virgin materials used to make new items. Our objectives were to raise awareness and initiate a repurposing habit through engaging participants in a hands-on activity of creating exfoliators from spent coffee grounds.We created a general survey to gauge the current perception of repurposing within the RVRC community and to validate our research. We also ran 30-minute long interactive workshops compromising of a pre-survey, a sharing session on repurposing and a post-survey. Lastly, we had a follow-up with the participants from our focus groups to check for any change in repurposing habits. Through this process, we saw a growth of awareness in 95% of our participants. However, only 25% of our participants showed signs of adopting repurposing habits. In conclusion, a one time-off intervention can raise awareness but remains insufficient in inculcating a new habit.

Vallamkonda Nagamani Teja (SOC), Anikesh Bhuvaneshwaram (SOC), Callie Cheong (SOC), Adi Nata (FOE)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

Waste management is a priority in Singapore because of the limited space in Semakau landfill, predicted to be full by 2025 (MEWR, 2019). However, 70% of Singapore consumers order food delivery at least once a month (Lim, 2019), with 49% consumers aged 18-34 years (Cheng, 2018). Similarly, our survey results found about 77% of RVRC students (n=100) order supper more than once a week. Our project aims to test a solution to reduce the food packaging waste by providing an alternative in-house supper option. During our widely publicised supper event offering affordable snacks for purchase, students were required to bring their own container to reduce plastic waste. Data collected from the event indicates that 94% of RVRC residents preferred to order in-house supper as compared to other supper alternatives. Our findings have been shared with the incoming student council for adoption the next academic year, to reduce RVRC’s collective waste footprint.

Tan Chong Hien Andrew (FASS), Thirumoorthy Divagar (SOE), Ekam Singh Pandher (SOC), Lin Weiyan (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Mr. N. Sivasothi

A minor change in the average Singaporean’s diet would be sufficient to ensure long-term food sustainability (Deloitte & A*Star, 2019). This project attempted to raise NUS students’ awareness of the impacts of their food choices through a scenario-based web game. The game includes familiar and relatable choices from various canteens in NUS. These choices were assigned scores based on LCA and users were informed of their environmental consequences. A sample size of 60 was chosen, out of which 30 students played the game and 30 acted as a control. A test was then administered to gauge the awareness of the different groups, with the experimental group scoring 17% higher. A hypothesis test was used to determine the statistical validity of the test results. The test showed there was a significant improvement in test scores of users who played the game (95% Confidence), confirming the effectiveness of our implementation.

David Goh Wei Rong (SDE), Florence Lian Wee Voon (FOE), Fong Yan Rong (BIZ), Liu Yang Ming (SOC), Teo Zantyn (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Florence Ng

Reducing food wastage is a priority in Singapore due to a lack of landfill space, and the upcycling of spent coffee grounds help to alleviate this. Our objective is to create a whiteboard duster casing by mixing both waste coffee grounds and waste polylactic acid (PLA) to upcycle spent coffee grounds, ultimately reducing the amount of waste entering the landfill. We designed a new whiteboard duster to replace traditional whiteboard dusters and invited students to focus group discussions to i) test the product and ii) to obtain feedback and insights of the manufacturing process, and iii) to see their willingness to use our dusters instead of traditional dusters. Our product was complimented for being user friendly and sustainable, as the calculated carbon footprint for our duster is less than that of the original duster. Hence our product, if implemented widely, can help reduce food waste while being sustainable.

Valerie Neo Ser Hwee (FOS), Tao Xinran (FOS), Lee Yin Tong (FASS), Gao Gui (SOC), Yee Zong Yee Zoe (FOS)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Florence Ng

We conducted a 2-day workshop titled “Let’s eat, Kids!” for preschoolers aged 5-6 years old, introducing them to food wastage. Each age group attended the workshop on different days. Before conducting the workshop, we visited the Childcare Centre to gather more information and find out more about the food wastage situation there. Firstly, we interviewed the teachers to know more about the students’ eating habits and learning activities. Next, we conducted focus group discussions with the students to know more about their knowledge about food waste. After we collected the data, we made a storybook, interactive booklets, puppets, puzzles, colouring and stickers for our workshop. We conducted a pre-and-post workshop focus group discussion with the students to ensure that our objectives are met. To measure the effectiveness of our project, we conducted interviews with the teachers before and after the workshop on the amount of food wasted.

Cao Zeyu (FOE), Goh Boon Hwee (YLLSOM), Lim Ting Yu Bernice (FASS), Marco Ivanhoe Tanoyo (SOC), Quek Ee Pin (FASS)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

Food waste constitutes one of the biggest waste streams in Singapore, generating 763,000 tonnes of waste in 2018. This includes processing waste such as brewer’s spent grain (BSG) from beer production. While other countries are able to repurpose BSG into animal feed, our survey of local breweries found that BSG was thrown away due to Singapore’s lack of animal farms. We also found that consumers in the youth category do not know processing food waste can be repurposed.

Our project aims to educate youths about repurposed food waste using BSG through a taste-test and an Instagram campaign. 74% (n=51) of respondents showed improved knowledge of BSG after the taste-test and 88% (n=51) had increased awareness of using repurposed food waste in food preparation. A direct hands-on approach and the use of social media has proved effective in engaging youths on the issue of repurposed food waste.

Balasubramanian Gayatri (SDE), Zhou Jiayi (FASS), Wong Chun Kiat (SOC), Goh Shuang Xun (SDE), Lim Han Wei, Dillon (FoS)

Academic Advisor: Ms. Sadaf Ansari

Despite the ease of composting, fruit waste is incinerated in Singapore. This breaks the nutrient cycle, leaving the loop open and ending the movement of valuable mineral nutrients (Elser and Bennet, 2011). Singaporeans consume 72 kg of fruits per person annually (Singapore Food Association, 2018), of which roughly 20% ends up as waste from fruit peels and cores. Information provided by the RVRC Office of Housing Services and the dining hall caterers indicated that students contribute to approximately 6000kg fruit waste each academic year. Our survey of RVRC residents (n=49) found that 52% were unaware of this problem and possible solutions. Our project aims to raise awareness and encourage residents to reconsider their fruit waste disposal habits. We conducted a workshop comprising of interactive games, informational videos and direct engagement. Data collected from the workshop indicated the success of our project in increasing awareness of the need to close the nutrient loop and to adopt alternatives to binning fruit waste.

Eng Thia Leng (FOE), Lye Yi Xian(SOC), Saffren Choo Jing Xuan(SDE), Wan Qirong(FOE), Wilson Widjaja Halim(FOE)

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

One third of Singapore’s food waste is contributed by ugly food. This is attributed to Singaporeans’ misconceptions and lack of knowledge on these aesthetically unappealing foods. Aimed at educating youths on what defines ugly food and increasing accessibility to them, our project attempts to encourage youths to purchase ugly food, thereby reducing food wastage.

We conducted an exhibition and compiled a map of ugly food retailers. Our exhibition aims to increase knowledge about ugly food and where to access them, encouraging consumption. Our map enables NUS students to locate ugly food retailers near campus, making it easier for students to commit to purchasing ugly food. Up to 70% of those who attended our events have shown increased awareness and willingness to consume ugly food. From our data, increasing knowledge and accessibility of ugly food is an effective way of reducing ugly food waste problems in Singapore.

Khoo Jingren, Forster (FASS), Seow Hui Qin (FASS), Tan Wei Xin (SOC), Zhou Yanpeng (FOE)

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

In Singapore, a growing coffee market generates an increasing volume of spent coffee grounds (SCG). Our project aims to 1. establish the effectiveness of SCG to be re-purposed as body scrubs, potentially replacing environmentally harmful mircobeads; 2. encourage RVRC students to try making these body scrubs, hence extending the life cycle of SCG. We produced two types of body scrubs with SCG, and improved the first version based on trial and feedback provided by a focus group of 17 RVRC students. Thereafter, we conducted a workshop to pitch and distribute version two of the body scrubs to the focus group for testing again. The focus group rated the second version of the two scrubs as more effective (T-test: p=4.19×10-5 and p=1.09×10-8), and were open to making such scrubs on their own (Chi-squared test: p=2.06×10-5). Hence, focus group testing and a workshop proved effective in encouraging RVRC students to re-purpose SCG.

Axel Lam Shi Han (FOE), Faith Lim Yi Ning (FASS), Lim Hai Shan (SOC), Lock Wen Xin Joseph (FOE), Sim Jian Wen (FASS) 

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin 

Food wastage, one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases, is increasingly pervasive in Singapore. RVRC’s dining hall discards on average, 9.28kg of unserved cooked rice from trays daily. We aim to alleviate rice wastage by upcycling the unserved rice, using minimal additional resources, into a desirable consumable product for RVRC students. To promote the cause, we simplified the production process to attract other students to undertake upcycling themselves. We formulated an easy-to-follow recipe to produce tasty crackers and conducted surveys i) on students to assess desirability and ii) on House-committee members to gauge their response to the production process. Our crackers were well-received by RVRC residents and House-committees showed interest in personally carrying out the production process, finding it easy-to-follow and meaningful in reducing rice wastage. Therefore, our recipe which produces a desirable product, is easy to implement and can effectively tackle rice wastage in the long run.

Jason Ongkowijaya, Joash Lim Shen, Mabel Khaw Shi Qi, Sneha Sunil Pillai, Yew Kai Zhe

Academic Advisor: Mr. Lim Cheng Puay

Food waste in Singapore has risen by over 40% over the last decade, amounting to over 800,000 tons per year. However, only 16% of this volume of waste is recycled. Thus, there is a need to increase the food waste recycling rate through innovative and inexpensive means. Black Soldier Fly (BSF) waste processing is a growing area of research due to their ability to eat up to 4 times their size, low cost, and space efficiency. The aim of our project is to increase youths’ willingness to adopt Black Soldier Fly food waste recycling in their respective homes. Our group conducted a pre and post survey on youth aged between 15-30 years on Instagram, with an educational campaign between the release of both surveys.  We also created a prototype of a small scale BSF food waste recycling kit and conducted focus groups to test its feasibility as a household recycling system. We received feedback from BSF researchers on our prototype which enabled us to create a more efficient and feasible system. Our survey findings have shown that educating consumers on how the BSF process occurs results in an increase in receptiveness to adopting BSF recycling. More research and information is needed to be shared among the public before we can effectively implement BSF recycling on a larger scale.

Keywords: food waste, waste management; black soldier flies

Gladys Tan Shi Xuan, Kelvin Harris, Low Jun Yang Leroy, Nadya Devani, Oh Won-Jun

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

According to National Environmental Agency, approximately 800 tonnes of food waste was produced in Singapore in 2018 and only 16% was recycled. Food waste is also predicted to continue to increase with the growth of Singapore’s population. However, even with elaborate food waste strategies, the issue of food waste persists and majority of the food waste contributed by households could have been prevented at the beginning. Households are also found to be one of the main contributing factors to increasing food waste. Our project aims to nudge changes to households’ behaviours by raising awareness of cooking with food scraps, and studying households’ receptivity to cooking with food scraps. We created a consolidated web page that consists of self-created videos, text recipes and supplementary videos to showcase ways to cook with food scraps. We then assess viewers’ level of understanding and receptivity to cooking with food scraps through a feedback survey. Our results shown that majority of the respondents found our web page to be useful in raising their awareness of cooking with food scraps. Majority of the respondents are also receptive to cooking and consuming food scraps. In short, the use of video and text recipes on a website appears to be a feasible approach to increase household’s awareness and receptivity of cooking with food scraps, which would alleviate the problem of food waste in Singapore.

Keywords: Food, Food Scraps, Household Food Waste

Muhamad Amir Thaqif Shah S/O Muhd Iskandar Shah Ta, Thanmaya Sivadasan, Wong Jin Fu Shaun, Zhang Xiaoyu, Zhao Wenqi

Academic Advisor: Prof. Adekunle Adeyeye

In the increasingly high-profile battle against food wastage, a prominent culprit would probably be surprising to many—schools. Data collected by past GEQ groups (GEQ Group 31, 2016; GEQ Group G01-B, 2017) demonstrate that a noticeable percentage of food waste come from school meal plans, with an estimated 15% of the meals prepared in Ridge View Residential College (RVRC) being thrown away because they are unserved. As such, our group aims to design a solution to better match meal demand and supply in RVRC through the development of a digital platform that allows residents to pre-indicate their meal choices. Our methodology comprises an online survey evaluating user receptivity towards our mobile application, as well as a beta testing period in weeks 10 – 11. After which, we will analyse the findings from our beta test in order to evaluate the feasibility of our prototype. Preliminary results indicate that an overwhelming majority of RVRC residents were open to the concept of a new and more efficient mobile app system where they could pre-indicate their meals up to 7 days in advance. This entails that there is an existing market of users who would be willing to participate in our trial tests and thus drive adoption in the future. However, due to the time-intensive nature of our mobile application development, we will only be able to do our evaluation in week 11 and therefore will only be able to draw conclusions later in the semester.

Keywords: Food, Food Waste, Mobile App, Mobile Application

Amira Binti Mohamad Rafi, Badrul Amin B Mahmud, Choi Min Suk, Chua Ser Gee Vanessa, Goh Qi Rong

Academic Advisor: Dr. Chua Siew Chin

Food waste is Singapore’s fifth largest waste category and made up 11% of the 7.3 million tons of waste generated in Singapore in 2012. Pulau Semakau, Singapore’s only landfill, is expected to be completely filled by 2035 and this has created an urgent need to find a value-added use for waste products. Our group is focused on reusing fruit waste – in particular, fruit peels, which are usually discarded while the flesh of the fruit is consumed. By combining various citrus peels that contain pectin with fruits that contain oleic acid, we tried to create a biodegradable superabsorbent polymer (SAP) that, when placed in soil, enables plants to go without watering for several days. Adapting from a previous experiment (Nirghin 2016), lemon, lime, and orange were used as sources of pectin, while durian and avocado were sources of oleic acid. The effectiveness of the SAPs was assessed in three different ways: by measuring plant growth, soil moisture, as well as water absorption capabilities. We found that all our fruit peel SAPs were effective at increasing the water retention of soil. The challenge however was mould growth on the SAPs, which led us to conclude that the SAP method would only work in locations with low humidity such as an air-conditioned room. Our findings could prove useful among the gardening community in Singapore, who can create their own biodegradable SAP that aids in plant growth, while helping to reduce waste in Singapore by reusing fruit peels, which would otherwise be discarded.

Keywords: Food, Fruit Waste, Superabsorbent Polymer, Citrus, Gardening