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Food, waste and poverty
Tractor-loads of discarded food at the Karadiyana Garbage Dump on Thursday
Asian Development Bank statistics for Sri Lanka show, around 4% of the population live below the poverty line. That is around 800,000 citizens manage on less than Rs. 10,000/- per month. Yet, according to officials of the Waste Management Authority, an estimated 500 metric tons of food is discarded as garbage in the Western Province alone!
According to the Director, Western Province Waste Management Authority – Nalin Mannapperuma- most of the waste released to the 21 garbage dumps in the city, is composed of food… amounting to around 18,000 metric tonnes of food wasted per month. He said measures needed to be taken to convert this large quantity of discarded food into animal feed and thus reduce the garbage to around half the quantity.
He observed that special events and functions contributed to the large amounts of food which ended up as waste and suggested event organisers and those organising public functions needed to do more to reduce the amount of food going waste.
While 4% of our population live below the poverty line, containers with food waste await collection outside some of Colombo's eateries
A tractor-load of food being unloaded at the Karadiyana Garbage Dump
The Waste Management Authority suggests converting food waste (above and below) into animal feed