After finishing a good meal, most of us don’t think twice about discarding the leftovers in the trash, never to be seen again.
Unfortunately, the waste doesn’t magically vanish or get transported to another dimension – most of it just ends up in incineration plants along with other kinds of non-food refuse.
That doesn’t sound so bad… until you learn that last year, Singapore generated 813,000 tonnes of food waste. That’s 813,000,000kg, by the way, and only 18% of that was actually recycled.
Source: Purdue Agricultural Communication via Waste 360, for illustration purposes only
That’s not really a good look for our country’s sustainability, which is why DBS Foundation and the National Environment Agency (NEA) are bringing back the Hungry for Change Challenge.
The campaign encourages youths to come up with innovative solutions to tackle Singapore’s food and packaging waste issues. DBS Foundation will then award a total of S$100,000 to five of the best ideas to help bring them to life.
On Monday (21 Aug), Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu officially announced the launch of this year’s edition of the DBS Foundation and NEA Hungry for Change Challenge.
She was speaking at an event that also spotlighted last year’s challenge winners and their creations, which attendees got to sample via a special five-course tasting menu while listening to them elaborate on their stories and solutions.
The Hungry for Change Challenge 2022 winning teams are:
Each has come up with their own way of addressing Singapore’s food waste problem.
The moonbeam.co and Mottainai Food Technology produce sustainable grain and meat substitutes respectively, while tHEMEat Company converts food discards into a vegan ingredient that replicates the smell and taste of meat.
ChangeX and D2L are more tech-oriented and developed systems to help F&B businesses manage their food surplus and waste better.
Each of these sustainability superhero start-ups received funding and mentorship from the DBS Foundation, giving them the means to pilot their solutions and ramp up operations, bringing them much closer to achieving their goals. They were able to have consultations with NEA as well.
If you’re a current student or graduated from an institute of higher learning in Singapore within the last five years and you’ve got a stellar idea on how to Thanos-snap the nation’s pesky food and packaging waste woes into oblivion, this is your chance to shine.
This year, the Hungry for Change Challenge will focus on reducing both food and packaging waste.
It will also involve major F&B brands McDonald’s, Koufu, and The Social Kitchen, which helped develop the problem statements for participants to address.
For instance, McDonald’s wants to explore how it can cut down on 1,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste while maintaining proper quality and hygiene standards.
The three organisations will also collaborate with the winning teams to implement their solutions.
And yes, there are prizes, and they’re pretty sweet.
Five of the most innovative and impactful ideas submitted will score the following:
In addition, the most promising solutions at the end of the pilot period from February to August 2024 will get extra funding of up to S$25,000.
Applications are open until 31 Oct, and the winners will be announced by February 2024.
For more information, visit the DBS Foundation X NEA Hungry for Change Challenge 2023 website here and submit your ideas here. Good luck!
Did you know that on 2 Aug, we reached 2023’s Earth Overshoot Day?
That’s the date when our use of resources exceeded what the planet can regenerate in that year – and to do it in eight months isn’t a good thing at all.
According to the Global Footprint Network, one way to delay the date is by reducing food waste, so it’s heartening to see how our country has so many brilliant and creative young minds dedicated to solving this problem.
In the meantime, we can also play our part to reduce food waste, such as only buying and cooking what we need, being more conscious about leftovers, and of course, refraining from doing silly things like ordering over a hundred dishes and going MIA.
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Featured image by MS News. Photography by Shawn Low.
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