■政府推出「惜食香港運動」，希望減少產生廚餘。 資料圖片【原文】為基層市民免費提供飯餐的非牟利機構「惜食堂」8月31日舉行感謝宴，行政長官林鄭月娥致辭時，希望企業、市民能努力推廣惜食文化。惜食運動提倡避免浪費食物，照顧弱勢社群，值得全社會推廣。本港作為富裕社會，人均廚餘棄置量甚高，更應響應惜食運動。政府應為企業、市民減少廚餘增加誘因、提供方便，同時宣揚珍惜與關愛文化，將香港建設成為「惜食之都」。
「惜食堂」與一些超市、酒樓合作，致力回收可食用材料，製作營養均衡飯盒免費派發給弱勢人群。7年來已回收4,800噸原本要棄置堆填區的可用食材，製作620萬份熱快餐和200萬份食物包，令逾3萬弱勢人群受惠，當中70%是長者。
聯合國糧農組織指出，每年供人類食用的糧食中，有三分之一遭到耗損或浪費，但卻同時有十億人口勒緊褲帶、忍飢挨餓。因此，減少食物浪費已成為國際焦點，APEC提出2020年亞太地區糧食損失與浪費要減少10%；歐洲議會宣告要在2020年減少50%的食物浪費；聯合國亦訂出2030年全球糧食浪費在生產端、消費端都要減半。作為國際都市，香港在防止浪費食物方面，表現並不理想。
香港每日有超過3,500噸廚餘棄置於堆填區，佔都市固體廢物量近四成。每日人均廚餘量相比鄰近地區如上海、新加坡、韓國和台灣，分別高出6.3倍、1.6倍、1.7倍和2.6倍。2016年棄置在堆填區的都市固體廢物高達379萬公噸，是歷來最高，當中廚餘棄置量按年大升6.5%，反映香港在推動惜食運動上有很大的提升空間。
特區政府在2013年推出全港性減少廚餘運動──「惜食香港運動」，希望增加公眾對廚餘問題的關注，鼓勵社會，包括個人、家庭以至工商業界，改變生活習慣，避免及減少產生廚餘。但現時惜食運動只是局限於少數超市等商戶，參與率太低，普通市民依然缺乏渠道處理生活中多餘的食物。政府推行的私人屋邨廚餘循環再造項目，以及公屋廚餘回收試驗計劃，只有大概5,200住戶參與廚餘分類，而收集、運送和再生是由屋邨自行招標找承辦商，政府角色只提供短期資助，非全盤規劃和一條龍統籌。政府投入參與不足，廚餘循環成效自然不理想。
要成功推廣惜食習慣，有賴市民大眾共同努力及合作，政府的政策激勵更十分重要。參考台灣地區的經驗，政府通過立法強制垃圾分類和收費，提供經濟誘因鼓勵市民減少浪費；同時設立回收基金，推動社區回收，確保回收商得到合理回報，在短短五六年間有效地減少66%的廢物，實現家居廚餘全面回收。
香港特區政府宜投入更多資源，提供更多激勵，支持商界和商戶推動食物捐贈計劃，將可食用的剩餘食物，透過食物銀行等方法，進行資源重新分配，派發給有需要的市民。（標題為編輯所加）（摘錄自香港文匯報社評1-9-2018）
Reduce food waste to make Hong Kong as a food wise city
【譯文】Food Angel, a non-profit organisation that provides free meals for underprivileged communities, held its Thanksgiving Luncheon on August 31. During the banquet, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor delivered a speech, and called for the support of enterprises and the public on the promotion of food waste reduction. The Food Wise Hong Kong Campaign deserves the public's support and collaboration, as it advocates both food waste avoidance and care for the disadvantaged. As an affluent society where the disposal rate of food waste per capita is mounting, Hong Kong has all the more reason to support the campaign. The government should provide incentives to both the private sector and the general public to reduce food waste, while also promoting a food wise and caring culture, so as to make Hong Kong as a food wise city.
Food Angel works closely with supermarkets and restaurants to rescue edible surplus food. The surplus food is then turned into nutritious meals, freely distributed to the needy. Carrying on their mission for the seventh year , Food Angel has already rescued 4,800 tonnes of edible surplus food that would otherwise be sent directly to landfill. Over 30,000 needy, of which 70 per cent are elderly, have benefited from the NGO's 6.2 million hot meals and 2 million food packs over the years.
According to a study by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), one-third of food produced yearly is thrown away while a billion people hang on to their lives without enough food. Since then, the international community has put the spotlight on food waste reduction. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) has called for a 10 per cent reduction in food loss and waste in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. Meanwhile in Europe, the European Parliament has set its food waste reduction target on 50 per cent by 2020. The United Nations has also targeted to halve global food waste on both the production end and consumer end by 2030. As an international city, Hong Kong is clearly lagging behind its peers in this regard.
In Hong Kong, over 3,500 tonnes of food waste are dumped into our landfills every day, which accounts for almost 40 per cent of the daily total municipal solid waste (MSW). In comparison with our neighbours, our per capita disposal rate of food waste is 6.3 times that of Shanghai, 1.6 times of Singapore, 1.7 times of South Korea and 2.6 times of Taiwan. As our total MSW disposal at landfill sites reached a record-high at 3.79 million tonnes in 2016, food waste had also risen by 6.5 per cent year-on-year. Clearly there is still much for us to do on our quest to reduce food waste.
In 2013, the government launched the Food Wise Hong Kong campaign ─ a city-wide food waste reduction campaign that aims to promote public awareness of food waste problems in Hong Kong and instil behavioural changes in the society, including individuals, households and commercial and industrial establishments, ultimately avoiding and reducing food waste generation. However, the extent of the campaign is limited so far, with only a handful of businesses such as supermarkets participating. The means to treat and recycle food waste are still lacking at individual and household levels. For instance, only 5,200 households have participated in either the Food Waste Recycling Projects in Housing Estates or food waste recycling trial scheme in public housing estates. Besides, the collection, transportation and actual recycling are all carried out by private contractors, which are hired by each housing estates on their own. Instead of leading, planning and coordinating, the role of the government is limited to providing short-term funding only. Without active government participation, the effect of Hong Kong's food waste reduction drive has been less than ideal.
Apart from the public's collaboration and support, government policy incentives are also crucial to the successful promotion of a food wise culture. In Taiwan, local authorities brought negative incentives for the generation of wastes by introducing mandatory garbage sorting and its related charges. At the same time, recycling funds are established in order to encourage recycling in communities, while also guaranteeing a reasonable return for recyclers. Taiwanese efforts have brought concrete results in food waste reduction, as borne out by a 66 per cent decline of wastes in merely five to six years' time.
The government should provide more incentives and resources for businesses to promote food donation schemes, so that edible food surpluses could be redistributed to the needy via food banks.■Jeffrey Tse (ywc_jeffrey@hotmail.com)
Questions
1. 都市固體廢物
2. 污者自付
3. 剩菜
4. 堆肥
5. 食物銀行
Answer
1. municipal solid waste (MSW)
2. polluter pays
3. leftovers
4. composting
5. food bank