Municipal food waste management in Singapore: practices, challenges and recommendations

Abstract

Municipal food waste is a global challenge in solid waste management, especially in Singapore. It is scattered in location, non-ignorable in quantity, and nonuniform in quality. This report focuses on the state of the art and challenges of Singapore municipal food waste management for the first time. The previous studies only focus on general food waste from both industry and municipality. The physical properties of municipal food waste are incompatible to landfill and incineration by creating secondary environmental burdens and lowering treatment efficiency. A decentralized anaerobic co-digestion with other substrates, after comparing with other technologies, is recommended, since bio-energy is a recognized valuable final product in Singapore's context. However, there are four major highlighted challenges of food waste recycling, including low final product demand, inefficient waste collection design, cheap disposal cost, and low social awareness. A ''food waste management hierarchy'' for Singapore is also proposed. The most to least preferred options are listed as: source reduction, industrial uses, renewable energy, and composting then incineration.

Mapping the Structure of Food Waste Management Research: A Co-Keyword Analysis

“…The research focuses on the issues of municipal waste and solid waste management. Examples of this research are Peng et al [ 35 ], Ng et al [ 36 ]. The problems observed in Cluster 1 are reflected both in the latest scientific literature, as well as in economic and political recommendations.…”

Perilaku Membuang Sampah Makanan dan Pengelolaan Sampah Makanan di Berbagai Negara: Review

“…Pembuangan utama sampah makanan di Singapura adalah insinerasi. Selain itu, landfill juga digunakan sebagai metode pembuangan yang umum digunakan (Ng et al, 2017…”

Call for planning policy and biotechnology solutions for food waste management and valorization in Vietnam

“…These policies cover agriculture and fishery sectors, industrial and internal markets, taxation, economic and monetary policy, free movement of capital, environment, consumers, and health protection. Most communities in European Union (EU) countries must be responsible for surplus food, meal planning, and food storage to utilize wasted food to create new dishes [ 13 , 14 ]. In addition, initiatives to raise citizens’ awareness and reduce FW by training, campaigns such as the collaboration of stakeholders in developing new prevention methods, information supply such as informative leaflets and brochures, and improving logistics have been disseminated in EU countries.…”

“…In Malaysia and Singapore, awareness programs, meal planning, penalties for illegal dumping of waste, and compulsory separation of solid waste at the source have been applied [ 4 , 14 ].…”