In Malaysia, after breaking their fast during Ramadan outside a mosque, people put their leftover food scraps into a machine that turns them into organic fertilizer for agriculture.
In the central state of Pahang, a modest government project seeks to curb food waste, particularly during the Muslim holy month when massive quantities of food are discarded on a daily basis.
The mobile device has been set up in a park in the center of Kuantan, the state capital, where many families go each evening to celebrate Ramadan by indulging in inexpensive local cuisine following a day of fasting.
According to Sharudin Hamid, the state director of Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation, which launched the pilot initiative last year, the organization processes 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of scraps per day.
The amount is a tiny fraction of the more than 13,000 tonnes of food sent to landfills around the Muslim-majority country every day, even more during Ramadan, but Sharudin said it was helping to increase awareness about food wastage.
“The main objective is to ensure that the waste is not sent to landfills,” Sharudin told AFP.
“This has had a significant impact on us, as people are becoming more aware of environmental conservation, especially in terms of food waste reduction.”
Food scraps are thrown into the machine where they are slowly mixed with rice husks and sawdust for 48 hours.
The brownish-coloured waste is then packaged and given to farmers to use as fertiliser on their crops.
“Things that grow from that fertiliser can also become food, which again can be composted into fertiliser. So there’s a natural cycle,” said Abdul Shukor Mohamad Salleh, 27, as he bought local delicacies at a Ramadan food market in Kuantan, one of many across the country.
Zulyna Mohamed Nordin, 53, uses recycled food waste as an organic liquid fertilizer for her vegetable, banana, and pineapple plantations on a tiny plot of land close to the city.
Every month, she gets thirty kg of the fertilizer; during Ramadan, she gets a little bit more.
I stopped utilizing pricey chemical inputs in June of last year. This increases output and is natural and organic,” Zulyna told AFP.
“My leafy vegetables are bigger and greener.”
