Green Economy Journal Issue 39

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BIOENERGYWasted foodWasted waterBY EVENTS GREENING FORUMIt is estimated that one third of all food produced globally is wasted. This appliesto South Africa and means that of the 31-million tons of food we produce annually,approximately 10-million tons go to waste.Agriculture is the single biggest consumer of fresh water, using70% (or more) of all freshwater withdrawals from rivers, lakesand aquifers. So: wasted food is also wasted water. SouthAfrica is a water scarce country, and this kind of loss can have very realimplications for our society. Agriculture is responsible for a significantamount of greenhouse gas emissions.The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate that lost and wastedfood accounts for about 4.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide each year, whichis a little less than emissions from road transportation. The Council forScientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) estimates the financial loss ofwasted food in South Africa to be R61.5 billion a year.The damage happens along the entire food production chain – frompests and poor harvesting methods at production, to challenges aroundtransportation, storage and packaging, not to mention retailers discardingfood reaching its sell-by date, pervasive over catering in the food serviceindustry, and also waste at home.SA Harvest collects and redistributes quality surplus food to hungrySouth Africans through feeding schemes, homeless shelters, schools andmore. Andrew Wilson, the Cape Town manager of SA Harvest, says, “It’s nottoo complicated. We need a few days’ notice of the event so that we canorganise the rescue logistics with the event organiser.”Regarding health and safety issues that could arise, Wilson says, “The20Green Economy Journal - GreenEconomyOnlinegreeneconomy.media
BIOENERGYmain concern is that the cold-chain should not be broken and so, overall,our most important criterion for refrigerated or warm surplus is that wemust collect it asap after the event for delivery direct to our beneficiaries,where we have made arrangements to deliver any time if necessary.“Catered events are a magnificent source for contributing towardsending hunger in South Africa, and we will welcome anyone involved inthe events sector to contact us if they have any questions about how theycan get involved.”Closing the loopFor food that is not fit for human consumption, there are many options toexplore. Sending it to landfill (rubbish dumps) should not be one of them.When organic waste is sent to landfill it releases methane, a greenhousegas with a global warming potential 21 higher than carbon dioxide,and leachate, a toxic liquid which poses the risk of contaminating ourunderground water supplies.Some venues opt to send food waste to pig farms. (Interestingly, foodis still considered lost or waste when fed to farm animals, because ofthe resource inefficiency of producing meat this way.) There are risksin dealing with food waste this way, says Gavin Heron, the director ofEarth Probiotic. The biggest is that you could feed pork to pigs (especiallywhen dealing with scrapings from plates), which is against all food safetypolicies. Another significant risk of feeding pigs untreated swill is youcould potentially cause an outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF).As a result, the Animal Diseases Act 35 of 1984 outlines the following: “Nofeeding of swill is preferable, but in cases where swill feeding is practised,any item that originates or was in contact with animals (including anykitchen refuse of animal or vegetable origin originating from any dwelling,hotel, motel, restaurant, eating-house, airport, harbour or any place wherefood is being prepared for human use) has to be cooked (boiled) for atleast 60 minutes or sterilised before it may be fed to pigs.”“In short, there is a high legal and financial risk if any ASF breakoutis in an area where food waste is being disposed of through pig farmercollections,” says Heron.He adds that another unpleasant consideration is that bones, cutlery andtoothpicks often end up in the swill, which can seriously injure the pigs.A better option to deal with organic waste is to compost it. And yes,cooked meat and bones can be composted, for example using bokashi.Earth Probiotic uses this for its onsite composting service; their EarthBokashi has been inoculated with beneficial bacteria and fungi, whichenables it to break down organic waste that is not easily composted (suchas cooked and uncooked meat, dairy and seafood), while also eliminatingodours. The Vineyard Hotel uses this solution for plate scrapings, and thengets this back as compost for their garden as required.Fly farms also present an efficient way to break down food waste, asdone by AgriProtein in Cape Town. Black soldier flies feed on the (treated)waste, grow and breed rapidly. The larvae are harvested to provide asustainable, high-quality, natural alternative protein to fishmeal. Typically,farmed fish are fed wild-caught fish – and as much as 25% of wild-caughtfish is used to create fishmeal (although 90% of these fish are fit for humanconsumption). Given how overfished and depleted our oceans are, thisisn’t sustainable.At the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) kitchenwaste is sent to fly farms, while food waste that is unpackaged andleftover, as well as any horse manure and straw (usually obtained fromthe Cape Premier Yearling event) is sent to their composting contractor,who distributes the waste for use in Bokashi. This, combined with carefulplanning in the kitchen, meant that in the 2018/19 financial year 86% ofthe CTICC’s total waste was diverted from landfill.Another way to deal with kitchen scraps is feeding them to worm farms(which produce a compost and worm tea, both of which can improve soilfertility). However, the worms can be quite selective in their tastes andthey don’t like citrus or garlic.In South Africa 90% of wastegoes to landfill, which meansthere is a massive opportunityfor diverting organic waste.A bio-digestor is an option for composting waste. It does this withoutoxygen, and the result is the release of biogas (60% methane and 40%carbon dioxide) which can be combusted to provide heat, electricity orboth. To be truly effective at generating electricity, bio-digestors need tobe done on a large scale.In South Africa, 90% of waste goes to landfill, which means there is amassive opportunity for diverting organic waste and creating usefulthings – like compost, fishmeal and electricity. Each ton of food wasteprevented, saves 4.2 tons of CO 2equivalent. Heron adds that businessescan also expect to benefit financially from reducing food waste – giventhat wasted food is also wasted money.*The Event Greening Forum is a non-profit organisation that promotes sustainabilitywithin the business events sector, through hosting educational sessions for industryand lobbying government in an effort to implement sustainability principles into thedaily operations of the events industry.The legislation“If you do not choose to divert your organic waste from landfill now, you will soon be legally obligated to,” cautions Grace Stead, the director ofsustainability consultancy Steadfast Greening. This is because the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning has a ten-yearplan in place to divert all organic waste from landfill. “It is motivated by the fact that landfill is the default destination for most organic waste, whereit poses environmental and health risks. The price tag to manage these risks is significant, while waste diversion provides additional benefits,” explainsStead. The plan was launched in 2017, with the target to halve the amount of organic waste being disposed of this way by 2022, and to achieve alandfill ban by 2027.Green Economy Journal - GreenEconomyOnlinegreeneconomy.media21
Page 1 and 2: G r e e nEconomyjournalIssue 39R29.
Page 3 and 4: ContentsISSUE 39061204061012141516N
Page 5 and 6: Now that COVID-19 is upon us, all o
Page 7 and 8: News & SnippetsPLASTICS SA HELPS LA
Page 9 and 10: Water ManagementUrban WaterPhotos b
Page 11 and 12: ProfileA SustainablePost-Mining Fut
Page 13 and 14: ProfileRainwater is collected and w
Page 15 and 16: ECONOMYGreen Building Council of So
Page 17 and 18: INFRASTRUCTUREDecoupling growthfrom
Page 19 and 20: Thought leadershipWe need to acknow
Page 24 and 25: EVENTSCTICC intoThe Cape Town Inter
Page 26 and 27: ENERGYGreen jobsare the green light
Page 28: Extraordinary Wines approved by Mot

Green Economy Journal Issue 39

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