Food Waste Quantification and Characterization as a Measure towards Effective Food Waste Management in University

Abstract

Globally, one-third of the food produced is wasted or underutilized which accounted for about 1.3 billion tonnes of food. If the food waste (FW) is disposed of in the landfill, it decomposes under the anaerobic condition that releases methane gas, a harmful greenhouse gas. FW is also referring as biodegradable materials where it has a higher moisture content that easily breakdown by the microbe and could produce odor problems. Thus, a study on FW generation rate and its characteristics were carried out. Physical and chemical characteristics of the FW which include the density, food waste composition, the generation rate, pH, moisture content, ash content, C/N ratio and the calorific value were determined based on the Malaysian Standard MS 2505:2012. Based on the field and laboratory work analysis, it was observed that the generation rate for the café A and B was between 0.04 kg/cap/day to 0.112 kg/cap/day and 0.01 kg/cap/day to 0.119 kg/cap/day. Meanwhile, the density of the FW was in the range between 0.035 kg/m3 to 0.077 kg/m3. Based on the standard method recommendation, 5 compositions were tabulated which include FW, plastic film, plastic rigid, paper and others (aluminum, steel and etc. ). Food waste demarcated was further divided into five categories such as rice, noodles, vegetable, shells and meat & bones. Rice and noodles produced the largest amount which was 52.50% and 55.52%. Moisture content and an ash content of the FW was recorded at 71.52% and 25.31% where it was slightly acidic (6.16) in nature. The calorific value for wet and dried FW was 4539.914 kcal/kg and 2091.3 kcal/kg. Based on the result obtained, the suitable method to treat food waste from the cafeteria was proposed.