Dear Editor,

Over the decades, the problem of food wastage has become serious in Hong Kong, which has occupied a certain area of our landfills. When the food waste continues to keep piling up in our landfills, not only can the landfill be unable to address the food waste, we also waste so much food that it is an acceptable behaviour to those who live in the poor countries.

For the problems resulting from food wastage, first, we are exploiting the natural resources which bring harm to the people in need. In the world, there are hundreds of thousands of people in the African countries who do not have enough to eat. They are struggling to maintain their life under the starvation. However, we waste tones of leftovers every day without a second thought. We really need to think of our wasteful behaviour.

Secondly, the increasing amount of food waste will accelerate the saturation of our landfills. It is observed that our landfills will be full in the coming years. If we continue to dump tones of food waste to the landfills each day, the carrying capacity of our landfills will be in great burden.

In order to reduce the food wastage, there are some possible solutions to address the problem. First of all, one solution that Hong Kong can carry out is to levy tax on food waste. Due to the tax, pepole will try hard to reduce the food waste in the domestic and commmerical levels in order to pay less. Moreover, the food waste will be treated separately in which it can be recycled in different ways. As a result, the burden to the environment and the ladfills will be reduced dratically.

Another solution is that we need to avoid over-ordring when we dine out. There are many restaurants that promote “ Eat Enough Waste Less Campaign”, we can request the restaurant to give us less amount of food during each meal. Not only can we waste less food, but we can also get refund when echoing the campaign. We should cherish the food rather than waste it.

To conclude, food wastage is a serious problem in Hong Kong which cannot be solved by any person. Instead, each one of us needs to work on it collaboratively. With our efforts and initiation, the problem of food wastage can be reduced greatly..

Yours faithfully,
Cai Linzhe
HHCKLA BUDDHIST CHING KOK SECONDARY SCHOOL