Reducing food waste: Strategies for household waste management to minimize the impact of climate change and contribute to Malaysia’s sustainable development

Abstract

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated, one-third of the food produced worldwide i.e.1.3 billion tons is either lost or wasted throughout the food supply chain from primary production to final consumption. According to The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), the sustainable food system has three pillars namely food loss and food waste, sustainable agriculture and nutritional challenge. Food waste can be classified into food products that are lost during the production phase, unavoidable food waste that lost during the consumption phase and avoidable food waste that could have been eaten but lost during the consumption phase. There are several popular treatment methods of food waste that have been widely applied in developing countries including animal feeding, composting, anaerobic digestion, incineration, and landfills. The common treatment of food waste in developing countries is dumping or landfills. About 95% of food waste ends at landfill sites in which food waste is converted into methane and other greenhouse gasses that affect climate change. Therefore, reducing food waste contributes to abating interlinked sustainability challenges including food waste and food safety, climate change and stress to natural resources. This paper sets out recommendations on how to reduce food waste generation by using six strategies that are food waste separation or composting behavior, eating behavior, cooking behavior, consumer's environmental knowledge of food waste, consumer's environmental awareness and government policy on household food waste management, which can contribute to the nation's goal for sustainable development.