Macao, as an international tourism city, is famous for its cuisine and for the quality of the food. Behind the scenes, however, restaurants, hotels and households of the territory generate hundreds of tons of food waste that troubles the environment and hygiene of Macao. To promote food waste recycling, the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) plans to build a facility for food waste treatment and conduct a pilot test in schools and hotels.

Food waste refers to the foods that are thrown away, either because they are not needed, or because they must be thrown away by regulations. It includes the foods that are left over, exceed the best date and unused part of ingredients. According to the statistics of DSPA, there are about 100 tons of food waste produced everyday in Macao, which is one third of the living waste, through the process of food production, food processing and retail.

Handling food waste is an environmental problem for every country around the world. It is forbidden to discard it in refuse dumps in Macao because of its bad smell, fast decay rate and production of methane. Methane is a toxic, highly flammable greenhouse gas produced in the decay process of organic waste. "The food waste is discarded in wet form and sent to the waste burning factory," According to DSPA. "Food waste contains a high proportion of water but low quantity of heat in burning process. Therefore, it is not a good way to handle the food waste by burning." With its rich organic component, on the other hand, food waste is reported to be ideal for recycling, which will reduce the amount of waste for landfill and help tackle the causes and effects of climate change.

For the recycling of food waste, DSPA announced a plan reported by Macao Daily in early February. In the first stage of the plan, DSPA will cooperate with schools and hotels to set up experimental spots for food waste collection and share the knowledge of food waste reduction and management. Meanwhile, a treatment facility will be built. It turns food waste into methane and compost using an anaerobic digestion process. The digestion process involves microorganisms breaking down the food waste in reactors in the absence of oxygen. The digested food waste can be used as compost for planting and methane produced will be collected and burnt to generate energy. After the first stage, promotional and publicity activities will be held. "Seminars, workshops and site visits would also be organized to share knowledge in food waste reduction and recycling," DSPA quoted as saying.

The cities and countries nearby are also handling the same issue with various solutions. In Hong Kong, the Food Waste Recycling Partnership Scheme was conducted which invites institutions and private sectors to promote food waste reduction in their organizations and carry out source separation of their food waste. In Singapore, 570,000 tons of food waste was generated in 2008 and the recycling rate is 12%. Food waste is usually processed to make animal feed, and undergoes digestion to produce compost or energy.

To deal with the problem of food waste, according to the website of DSPA, the best solution is not recycling but reducing waste which begins from every one of us. We should only order how much we can finish in a restaurant. Extra foods should be packed and taken away. Moreover, we have to ensure to finish the food before the best served date. To do all the measures mentioned above, we could enjoy the famous and high cuisine in Macao in an environmental friendly way. Bon appeit!