MechChem Africa December 2019/January 2020

There is a strong movement towards the immediacy of reducing the effects of climate change, as expressed by Greta Thunberg’s recent UN speech underpinned by the sentiment – Right Here. Right Now. Interwaste takes a closer look at the role food waste plays in the fight against climate change, and the solutions that should be considered to change this. Drawing the line on food waste

“ R esearch shows that each ton of food equates to almost 4.14 t CO 2e , and that 4.3% of South Africa’s greenhouse gas emis- sions are from the disposal of organic waste. This indicates a high emissions rate, and pro- vides grounds to argue that food waste is an important contributor to climate change – a contributor that can, and should, be avoided,” says Jason McNeil, CEO at Interwaste. “What is worse is that, in a country that is already water scarce, the very food that is beingwasted is using up 22%of the country’s water supply through the agricultural process – a significant impact on the larger climate change discussion. As such, there is no doubt that food waste needs to be stopped, to curb hunger and, as importantly, to make sure the water used to grow it, is not used in vain.” McNeil says food waste is more than just a major climate issue – it is an economic, sustainability and socio-economic issue. “Statistics show that 27% of available food in sub-SaharanAfrica iswasted, resultingmostly

from production and retail, and edible food waste through the value chain in SouthAfrica iscostingthecountryR61.5billionperannum, and 2.1% of National GDP. “In a country that is economically and socio-economically challenged, we have to ask ourselves if we can afford to waste food. Similarly, as a global player, what arewedoing to aid the global climate?” asks McNeil. The answer lies in effective management of food waste. Corporate South Africa has a fundamental role to play in reducing the foodwastenumbers.Minimisingwastage and overproduction remain critical, but finding waystoreduceandrepurposefoodwastethat is safe and makes financial sense can create opportunity in other economic areas too. In fact, there is a profound, positive ripple effect and impact of sound foodwastemanagement on the country. It provides the opportunity to recover foods for redistribution to those in need and also repurpose food waste through composting, anaerobic digestion and bioremediation. “The amount of energy wasted each year in South Africa by producing food that is not consumed, equates to the amount of power required by the City of Johannesburg for roughly 16

Jason McNeil, CEO at Interwaste.

ways inwhich to set a benchmark for deriving better and more sustainable waste manage- ment solutions – solutions that focus beyond the landfill model – alternativeswill notmake the impact that is needed. “We are seeing a serious shift in this space, with many companies taking a proactive and committed stance to reducing and repurpos- ing their food waste. After all, there is much more than just a commercial value for corpo- rate South Africa– there is a socio-economic obligation, ensuring we are helping to feed South Africa’s people, and not draining our planet’s resources,” continues McNeil. To this end, theSouthAfricanGovernment has made a global commitment to halve food waste in the country by 2030. In support of this, new laws have been legislated and regulations are being rolled out, all aimed at cleaning-up South Africa and reducing the negative environmental and health impacts caused by waste. “If we consider the aspects that make up the circular economy, then the effective management of food waste – through the removal of unnecessary excess materials, energy losses and related carbon emissions – and by allowing the food waste to be ‘fed’ back into the cycle, we enable the reutilisa- tion of a resource to further contribute to the fight for real climate change,” concludes McNeil. q

weeks,” saysMcNeil. “Considering the numbers, there is no doubt that innovative solutions such as anaerobic digestion – that extracts energy from com- posting food waste and cre- ates a source of power – is a very viable solution for socio-economic gain.” However, if companies themselves are not examining

“In a country that is economically and socio-economically chal- lenged, we have to ask ourselves if we can afford to waste food. Similarly, as a global player, what are we doing to aid the global climate?” asks McNeil.

22 ¦ MechChem Africa • December 2019-January 2020