Food Waste Management and Green Purchasing Behaviour Among Youths in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysia still produces an estimated around 37,890 tonnes of waste per day and 16,687 tonnes of it is food waste in 2019. This figure gives the impression that Malaysians are still not trying to reduce waste as higher amount of waste can reflect the quantity purchased by Malaysians. This situation occurs because it has become a habit to purchase items that cannot be recycled or reused without feeling bad for the environment. The aims of this paper are to highlight the issues and strategies in food waste reduction in Malaysia. Secondary data are collected regarding "food waste", "waste management" and "environment friendly food purchasing" scope matters. There are several categories of food waste in Malaysia, food losses from production in the food supply chain, unavoidable, and avoidable food waste. Food waste does affect the environment through the greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, land occupation footprint and water footprint. The strategies to overcome the problem of food waste disposals in Malaysia are through composting, recycling, and anaerobic digestion treatment. Green purchasing is an influential driver in almost all the beginning movement of sustainability in the supply chain, which also included food processing until the disposal phase.

Valorisation of chicken eggshell as a novel food ingredient in madeleine cake: an exploratory study amongst young adults

“…, 2020; Selahudin et al. , 2020; Zain and Rahman, 2021). To date, there are limited studies that explored the perspective of young adults towards the acceptance of food waste as a food ingredient.…”

“…Most studies have focused on determination of consumers' perception and attitude towards the upcycled food through survey studies, but few have included incorporation of tasting sessions and product evaluation. In the context of Malaysia, studies on food waste are centred on understanding youth behaviour towards food waste management (Jamaludin et al, 2020;Selahudin et al, 2020;Zain and Rahman, 2021). To date, there are limited studies that explored the perspective of young adults towards the acceptance of food waste as a food ingredient.…”

Household Food Waste Behavior in Klang Valley, Malaysia, and Its Potential in the Circular Economy

“…Currently, only a few of the studies on waste measurement available at the national level have been focused on food waste. Both quantitative and qualitative research has been conducted on food-waste management in Malaysia, related to environmental consciousness [30], how psycho-social factors influence intention [31], green purchase behavior [32], household intention [33], food-waste separation intention [34], and zero-waste pro-environmental behavior on a university campus [35]. However, there is still a lack of data on food expenditure, choices, and reuse of food-waste behavior.…”