KULAI: During the first week of Ramadan in Johor, a staggering 3,223 tonnes of food waste were disposed of at landfill sites daily.
This amount is equivalent to filling approximately 1,289 Olympic-size swimming pools each day, underscoring the urgent need for improved food waste management.
Chairman of the State Housing and Local Government Committee, Datuk Mohd Jafni Md Shukor, however, said that this figure marked a decrease in food waste disposal compared to 4,559 tonnes per day last year.
He attributed to the decrease to the “Appreciate Food, Avoid Waste campaign”, organised by the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) in an attempt to reduce food wastage and landfill disposal.
The initiative was launched after a SWCorp study identified food as the most frequently discarded waste in landfills, he said.
Reducing food waste in landfills is vital for the environment.
Food waste decomposes slowly without oxygen, producing methane gas — a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide — contributing to global warming.
Methane also damages the ozone layer, increasing the risk of health issues like skin cancer and affecting crop yields.
Cutting food waste helps reduce emissions and protect the planet.
Also present at the event to cut food wastage were SWCorp Chief Executive Officer Khaled Mohamed and SWM Environment Corporate General Manager Mohd Norlisam Mohd Nordin.
According to last year’s data, the MySaveFood@Ramadan 2024 programme has salvaged 3,265 kg of surplus food from 51 Ramadan bazaars across the state, Harian Metro reported.
Meanwhile, Khaled said that, so far, a total of 1,585.48 kg of food was collected from 29 Ramadan bazaars in the state.
“Unsold food from bazaar traders was distributed to nearby mosques, university students, and uniformed personnel on duty,” he said.
Last year, Khaled said the food waste reduction project collected 60,798.8 kg of surplus food (enough to feed approximately 86,855 people) from 147 bazaars across Malaysia.
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