Case Study:

Food Waste Composting Application in Cafeteria

Introduction

Food wastage in Malaysia is at critical stage with 15,000 tons of leftover food thrown away each
day, including 3,000 tons of food. Food wastage will increase especially during festive seasons.
As we know, improper disposal of unmanaged food waste can cause many flies and cause
disease. Food waste that has been thrown away can be recycled by producing compost fertilizer.
Composting is the process recycling the food waste into fertilizer. Composting not only
nourishes healthy plants but also reduces volume of trash. Composed are produced from
decaying of an organic matter such as dry leaves or dry grass, food waste (cannot contain oily,
fat and meat) others. Organic matter, oxygen, bacteria and moisture is four main components in
composting process.

Case Study description

This case study focus on food waste management and food waste composting in UTHM café.
For food composting project, Arked Uthm Café has been chosen as the places to collects all the
food wastes that will be process for recycle. As a result from this research on the effects of food
waste after being recycle, the methods of overcoming this issue and also about the management
of this food wastes.

Figure 1, Arked Café

Problems

Wasted food waste affects the surrounding environment. Disposal of these food waste
will also have a negative impact on the environment and consequently can bring bad
things to an individual. The first negative thing that can affect the environment or the
individual in general is the ability to infect the disease. This is because the remnants of
this food will be covered by flies and other animals such as mice. An example of a
disease that can be caused by this flies is typhoid fever, dysentery, cholera, poliomyelitis,
yaws, anthrax, tularemia, leprosy and tuberculosis. Furthermore, the removal of these
food waste into the river can cause algae growth which will pollute the river as algae acts
by producing harmful toxins which will affect other living things. The remnants of this
food are also caused by the attitude of a small number of unscrupulous individuals and
also their greed in taking the food provided. This is because they will feed on the large
quantities due to their greed and when they cannot finish the food, then there will be
wasted. Due to the increase in food waste disposal, my group has learned how to reduce
the wastage of these foods from rising. With this issue, my group came out with a
solution to reduce food waste by composting it become an organic fertilizer.