[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/composting-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/composting-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/","headline":"Composting: Why are we not doing it?","name":"Composting: Why are we not doing it?","description":"\u201cEvery farmer talks about the soil. And composting is a very essential biological component of soil regeneration,\u201d says Darren Ho, urban farmer and founder of Petalicious.\u00a0 Every time you harvest something and end up not using it, you throw it back into the soil for it to return to the cycle \u2014 that is the […]","datePublished":"2021-10-27","dateModified":"2022-06-29","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/#Person","name":"Rachel Teng","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/rachel-teng\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/Rachel_Teng-100x100.jpg","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1635322420412_Composting_Why_are_we_not_doing_it_1280x626px.jpg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1635322420412_Composting_Why_are_we_not_doing_it_1280x626px.jpg","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/composting-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/","about":["Community","Environment","Food","Local","Singapore"],"wordCount":1933,"keywords":["30 by 30","biodigester","bokashi","chef","community","composting","F&B","farming","fermenting","food","food waste","global food supply","government","waste segregation"],"articleBody":"\u201cEvery farmer talks about the soil. And composting is a very essential biological component of soil regeneration,\u201d says Darren Ho, urban farmer and founder of Petalicious.\u00a0Every time you harvest something and end up not using it, you throw it back into the soil for it to return to the cycle \u2014 that is the beauty of composting, according to Mr Ho.\u00a0In 2019, the Singaporean government announced the \u201c30 by 30\u201d strategy \u2014 to produce 30 percent of our nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030 \u2014 in a bid to lighten the nation\u2019s overwhelming dependency on food imports. At present, the country brings in about 90 percent of its food supply from 170 countries, according to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).\u00a0Given the drive toward growing our own food, what place does composting occupy in this lofty goal?\u00a0\u201cWhen we throw away our food, the resources used to grow and deliver food to us are wasted. Additional resources will also be needed to collect, transport, and incinerate them,\u201d said Dr Amy Khor, senior minister of state for the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) during a virtual dialogue in April this year hosted by Eco-Business, \u201cThe truth about Singapore\u2019s foodprint\u201d.\u00a0That being so, it is imperative that we start viewing our food systems as cyclical, rather than linear.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to keep importing our food, but it’s not okay to just have nowhere to get rid of our food waste sustainably,\u201d adds Mr Ho.\u00a0Yet, why are we not composting?\u00a0Oliver Truesdale Jutras, head chef at local farm-to-table restaurant, Open Farm Community, shares that where he comes from, composting is well and truly a part of the waste stream at each and every household.\u00a0\u201cIn Canada, we have a compost bin at home, and no food goes into the garbage at all. We separate our waste into four main streams: plastic, glass, paper, and compost. A separate truck comes by to pick up our compost,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0It seems Singapore might be headed in a different direction altogether, for better or worse. \u201cI think that the notion of composting is still very foreign to both public and private stakeholders. Right now, most are looking instead towards high-tech solutions,\u201d says Mr Ho.\u00a0Here are the main reasons why.\u00a01. It is the low and slow way\u201cComposting is really about inculcating biodiversity in our processes; you\u2019ve got to feed [the soil] the right things to get the best things out of it,\u201d says Mr Ho, who believes that for composting to be properly scalable, it requires \u201ca complete shift in our thinking\u201d.\u00a0\u201cA big part of it is getting people to be more receptive to failure, because it is a very experimental process. It isn\u2019t a short-term thing,\u201d he says.\u00a0With no one-size-fits-all rule, the process requires one to be on the ball, dealing with different types of food waste day by day. Post-consumption waste or meat waste, for example, are significantly harder to manage and often take longer to break down.\u00a0Food wastage occurs at every stage of the global food supply chain. Photo source: WWF EU.2. It can get smellyOne hard truth is that composting tends to attract pests. The aerobic breakdown process results in warmer temperatures and odours, which may present a health hazard, especially for Food and Beverage (F&B) outlets.\u00a0\u201cWhen we talked to the National Environmental Agency (NEA) about on-site composting at our restaurant about three to four years ago, they told us that it\u2019s not allowed to be done close to F&B outlets, because it might attract rodents or other pests,\u201d says Mr Truesdale-Jutras.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re zoned as F&B on the map, so there are rules about trying to avoid pests, and having a heap of decomposing food waste is not really feasible,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe have since occupied the agricultural land next door, but we have so much more land compared to regular F&B outlets.\u201d\u00a0Tan Hang Chong, core team member at circular food community Foodscape Collective, highlights that composting requires time and space for trial-and-error.\u00a0\u201cMy mum complains about how I compost because she doesn\u2019t like the smell,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople might think it\u2019s hard or be averse to it, as when it becomes anaerobic (there\u2019s not enough oxygen), the smell can get bad.\u201d\u00a03. It requires some experience and labourMr Truesdale-Jutras shares that with experienced management, there are ways to mitigate the undesirable side effects of compost.\u00a0\u201cThe easiest way to compost is to just throw stuff in a pile and let nature take its course, but that will attract more pests for sure,\u201d he says. \u201cA super well-managed compost pile with ashes and dry leaf litter probably wouldn\u2019t smell.\u201d\u00a0Adding about 25 kilograms of compost per week to their on-site compost system, he shares that just one trained gardener will be able to handle the manual labour of keeping up a healthy turnover for a compost pile.\u00a0A bacteria-dominant compost with kitchen and fruit scraps. Photo courtesy of Foodscape Collective.The problem, however, might lie in finding that one trained person, partly because many Singaporeans are averse to \u201cdirty\u201d jobs. \u201cCurrently, there are not enough experienced gardeners or trainers in the composting community for it to be scalable, and those that exist are doing it at very small scales and are pretty fragmented,\u201d adds Mr Ho.\u00a0\u00a04. It has yet to make financial sense\u201cEven though zero-waste businesses should technically be the most profitable businesses right now because all resources are maximised, many corporations in Singapore have no [financial] incentive to compost,\u201d says Mr Tan.\u00a0Compared to other countries with volume charges for waste, not to mention mandatory waste segregation practices, Singapore charges a standard service fee for household and corporate waste collection.\u00a0This gives both households and food corporations little reason not to think twice about throwing out waste that can otherwise rejuvenate the soil.\u00a0At the same time, simply buying a bag of compost or soil from a nursery or supermarket would cost one about $5 \u2014 negating the effort and time of DIY-composting for many. \u201cWe have become victims of our own success,\u201d adds Mr Tan.\u00a0Alternatives to composting\u00a0Mr Ho highlights that composting merely addresses one part of the waste streams in food supply chains. \u201cIt\u2019s always the distribution and the pre-prepping the selection that carries the outcome, because those things are easier to control. After that, what\u2019s done is pretty much done,\u201d he says.Many other food waste solutions hence exist to complement composting, but they each come with their pros and cons.1. High-tech farmingAs a counter-model to the \u201clow and slow\u201d way,\u00a0 the SFA is visibly banking on urban farming to ramp up local food production, having offered a total of $39.4 million to nine up-and-coming urban farms.\u00a0With a limited supply of arable land in Singapore to feed all on this sunny island, Mr Truesdale-Jutras sees the need for high-tech farms, which are often space and time efficient. But he believes that a blend of traditional and urban farming is ultimately more beneficial.\u00a0\u201cI think that growing things in soil and being in tune with the land holds a very meaningful position in society, and I worry that high-tech farms might just remove us further from food chains,\u201d he says.\u00a0He also points out that many high-tech farms do not operate cyclically, and import their seeds for each new crop cycle.\u00a0\u201cIt still makes for a good business, but food security wise, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much of a difference between importing whole lettuce and importing seeds, because during times of crisis, seed suppliers are unlikely to continue sending over their seeds as well,\u201d he adds.\u00a02. BiodigestersAs opposed to composting systems, biodigesters are much less selective, making them much more scalable at this current juncture.\u00a0The Grand Hyatt Hotel, for example, has an on-site biodigester which addresses up to 500kg of food waste per day, and has saved $100,000 annually in the process.\u00a0\u201cBiodigesters are a good short-term way to deal with most, if not all, sorts of food waste. They help to extract oil and salt from food sludge \u2014\u00a0which are very hard to break down naturally \u2014\u00a0and which can also be recycled for other purposes,\u201d says Mr Ho.\u00a0It is important to note, however, that biodigestion is not composting, and much of biodigested waste ultimately ends up in our space-scarce landfill, Pulau Semakau.\u201cFood consists mainly of water, and that is not good for our incinerators for a heat-efficiency standpoint,\u201d explains Mr Tan. So the main objective of biodigesters is to de-water our food waste, achieving 90 percent volume reduction for our landfills.\u201d\u00a0How a biodigester works to create energy from food waste, in a nutshell. Photo source: Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE).3. Alternative compostingWhile still yet to be scalable, many new-age gardener-entrepreneurs are exploring other composting models.\u00a0Insectta, for example, is a local startup which employs black soldier flies to process food waste. The end products are high-value biomaterials that can be worth up to a few hundred dollars a gram.\u00a0\u201cBy harnessing these flies […], we have increased the value of food waste \u2014 where it once was a negative-value product \u2014 to a positive-value product,\u201d Chua Kai-Ning, co-founder of Insectta, told the Straits Times.\u00a0Another alternative is Bokashi, an aerobic composting method originating from Korea and Japan.\u00a0\u201cPersonally, I think the products of Bokashi composting are a lot more versatile. Not only does it have a less pungent smell, you can sometimes even use the outputs directly as detergent or soap,\u201d says Mr Ho.\u00a0Planting seeds of communal change\u00a0Mr Ho believes that Singapore is only still at the very beginning stages of this cultural shift \u2014\u00a0separating our waste and knowing what to compost.\u00a0A critical precursor to composting is first cultivating the habit of segregating waste, and Mr Ho believes that all stakeholders will have a role to play in normalising this habit.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s hard for Singaporeans to change their practices unless the government eventually mandates that we have composting bins in our homes, hotels, and restaurants, so that all food scraps can be segregated,\u201d\u00a0 he says.\u00a0This is well in the works. Dr Amy Khor announced in March 2019 that commercial and industrial premises that generate a large amount of food waste will be required to begin segregating food waste for treatment from 2024.\u00a0By 2028, an integrated water and solid waste treatment plan called the Tuas Nexus will also be constructed. The waste facility will convert methane-rich food waste into electricity, cutting a projected 200,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.\u00a0Pilot programmes have been tested out in residential communities such as the Tampines Greenlace HDB estate. The \u201cFood Waste, Don\u2019t Waste!\u201d initiative had residents disposing of their food waste in dedicated food waste bins on the ground floor. The food waste was then recycled at Tampines Hub to produce fertiliser and non-potable water.\u00a0\u201cIt all begins with the people \u2014\u00a0perhaps those who have already bought into the idea,\u201d says Mr Ho. \u201cIt could first start with Tampines Eco-Town, and then another, and then another\u2026 and soon, the whole of Singapore might be ready to compost a few years down the road.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u201cMany in the government are also interested in looking into how to encourage more community composting facilities, and reaching out to us at Foodscape collective,\u201d added Mr Tan. \u201cWe\u2019re striking where the iron is hot and synergising with the growing demand for community gardens, especially since the Covid-19 lockdowns.\u201dJoin the conversations on TheHomeGround Asia’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Composting: Why are we not doing it?","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/composting-why-are-we-not-doing-it\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]