Hong Kong - Fining full diners
In the past 5 years the amount of wasted food coming out of restaurants, hotels and food manufacturers in Hong Kong has more than doubled. This food accounts for 1/3 of the 9 300 tons of waste that go to the landfills every day in Hong Kong, in the US 12 % of the waste is from food. The landfills are starting to fill up - and they obviously have a maximum capacity, not to mention the food in a landfills gives of methane.
The solutions in Hong Kong have been the following: setting up experimental composters which will transform 4 tons of food waste a day into soil conditioner, convincing hotels and catering businesses to truck their waste to recycling centers, charging people for leaving leftovers and installing “digesters” in their basements.
The machine, a large stainless steel chest, is maintained at a steady 37 degrees Centigrade (98.6 degrees F.), and fed three times a day with leftovers and a handful of rice husks impregnated with enzymes that speed up decomposition. Every hour, a set of turbine blades churns the food up for a minute and by the time the process is over 100 kilos of noodles, croissants, green vegetables, meatballs, crispy duck, you name it, has been reduced to five kilos of sludge, several liters of water and a puff of CO2. The sludge then goes to the dump.
That is not just wasteful; it is unprofitable for restaurateurs. One restaurant charges HK$5 (US64 cents) per ounce of leftovers.
“All you can eat” sushi joints also have a problem with diners who pile their plates high and then simply eat the raw fish off the top, leaving the rice. One sushi restaurateur, according to local media, charges HK$10 (US$1.28) per leftover sushi.
There is something so fundamentally wrong here. Where other countries are striving to find just enough food to feed their families Hong Kong is having to charge people to finish their food.. People will actually pay to walk away from food that others would die for just to have it sent to their families. Wouldn’t it make more sense to limit the amount of food being given? Eliminate “all you can eat”s and just give people reasonable portions that they will be able to finish.
The gap between the affluence of countries never ceases to amaze me - and the greediness of those in the affluent countries is just disgusting. We wallow in our own food filth, piling it in landfills and letting it excrete methane into the air - while others starve to death. Sickening isn’t it?
I agree that huge food portions and the wastefulness of countries like the U.S. are both big problems. Yet the “clean your plate” mentality is dangerous too. It seems so impossible that there could be people starving in the world. I don’t know. I wish I knew what to do–or who to send my money to. That might be a good campaign for my blog, actually.
Interesting.
I’ve been living in Canada for 10 years, and it’s very common to bring back home any leftover from a meal in Richmond here.
Once, when I was back in Hong Kong for Christmas and had a dinner with my family, so many dishes were on the table that it’s impossible to finish. Out of habit, I asked the waiter we’re taking home all the leftovers. Then everyone else at the table was simply staring at me, like I was being an idiot. Haha.
I found it very hard to understand for a long while, but now I am able to conclude this. It’s unlike Canada where temperature’s much cooler, so the leftovers won’t get spoilt so easily on the way home. If not for this reason, then it’s plainly for vanity’s purpose!
Same thing with garbage. In Hong Kong, it’s almost overflowing everywhere. In Canada, we would even bring it back home.