Overview on food waste management and composting practice in Malaysia

Abstract

In Malaysia, about 16,688 tonnes of food waste is generated per day. Despite its bio-degradable characteristics which have high potential to be composted, nearly 80% of the generated food waste is still disposed at the landfill. This paper provides an insight on the scenario of food waste management in Malaysia including the amount of food waste generated, government’s policies, regulation and initiatives as well as public awareness on composting approach as an alternative to reduce food waste disposal in Malaysia. The public awareness on the composting approach was obtained from various surveys conducted from the previous study. It is found that the initiative of the government on the enhancement of food waste management is still ineffective due to the limited budget as well as lack of public awareness on the segregation of food waste at the source. The results of the survey depicted that the awareness of Malaysians on the food waste composting is relatively poor. Amongst the contributory factors are lack of facility for composting and insufficient knowledge on the composting steps. It is expected that the simplified review on the food waste management and composting practice in Malaysia could provide an understanding to the community on the importance of food waste separation and composting to prevent environmental pollution.