Food waste is bad for the planet and our wallets, so why are we still wasteful?
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Just before Amina Seyd left home, she noticed half of a loaf of bread on the counter. She took a slice to eat, but knew the rest would likely be in the bin by the time she returned from school.
This is a common problem: why do we waste food when we know it is wrong?
The issue with food waste
Kevin Tam is a social science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Tam explained there could be many reasons people throw away food that could still be eaten.
In some cultures, people are expected to serve guests more food than they need.
Parents might want their children to eat well, so they buy and cook more than enough food. But when they cannot finish the food, it gets thrown out.
This is what happens in Amina's home.
'Bread tends to expire easily, and since there are four siblings in our household, we sometimes buy more than we can eat. We usually only eat bread for breakfast, so it often goes unused,' the 16-year-old Hongkonger said.
In 2022, 11,130 tonnes of municipal solid waste was sent to Hong Kong's landfills every day. Of this, 30 per cent was food waste. Food waste takes up the limited space in landfills. Also, a 2024 UN report found that food waste creates eight to 10 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions every year.
The Environmental Protection Department has programmes to reduce waste, such as food recycling bins. But green groups say more needs to be done to change how people think.
Social enterprise uses insects to compost food waste in Hong Kong
How we get rid of the guilt
Tam pointed out that some people do feel bad about throwing food away.
'They might either change their behaviour by reducing food waste or change how they think about it,' he said.
They might try to convince themselves that it is OK to throw away the food because it would have gone bad. They might also try to make themselves feel less guilty by doing another good deed.
Amina said some of her classmates felt that their individual actions would not make a difference.
'They often underestimate the impact of leaving behind even a small amount of food and think that it isn't a big deal,' she said.
According to Tam, this could be because people in wealthy cities like Hong Kong do not experience the consequences of food waste.
'This also highlights why simply telling people to waste less or offering rewards isn't enough. We need to go beyond simply telling them it's bad, and show how their actions are directly connected to their lives,' Tam said.
Smart food waste recycling bins have been installed across Hong Kong. Photo: Sun Yeung
What we can do to fix this problem
Government campaigns can show how wasting food creates greenhouse gases, which are leading to increasingly hot summers in Hong Kong.
The government can also push stores to sell food in smaller amounts and tell school canteens to serve less food.
'When only large packages are available, or if smaller packages are too expensive, people tend to buy more food than they actually need,' Tam noted.
Schools could also help students track how much money they could save in a year if they wasted less food. Workshops can teach them how to use leftovers in new dishes and how to store food so it stays fresh.
'Achieving lasting change in teenagers' food waste habits and tackling Hong Kong's food waste problem requires a comprehensive approach: motivating them, providing the right environment, and empowering them with the ability to act,' he said.
To test your understanding of this story, download our printable worksheet or answer the questions in the quiz below.
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