KUALA LUMPUR: Ramadan bazaar traders in Kuala Lum-pur and Putrajaya are wasting 47,610kg of food per day, an amount that could feed 39,675 people.
Federal Territories Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp) director Ummi Kalthum Shuib said its study found that 52,900kg of garbage were produced on average every day from 5,694 business lots in both Federal Territories.
About 90 per cent of the waste is food.
"If we calculate 90 per cent of 52,900kg, it's 47,610kg and if it's divided by per capita food consumption per day, which is 1.2kg, we could've fed 39,675 people with that amount of food waste," she told the New Straits Times.
Ummi said the bulk of the waste, which is an average of 49,800kg, came from 5,260 bazaar lots in Kuala Lumpur.
Each bazaar lot, she said, produced an average 9.5kg of waste.
The 434 bazaar lots in Putrajaya produced about 3,200kg of waste or an average of 7.3kg per lot per day, she added.
"So we have about 52,900kg of waste in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya per day, and if we divide them by 28 days, it will be 1,481kg."
Ummi said 81 per cent of the traders said they recycled the balance of their food.
However, there was no evidence to support the claim, she said, adding that 16 per cent of the traders claimed that they were able to sell all their food.
"About 74 per cent of them said they had thrown away less than 1kg of food, and the other eight per cent had thrown away more than 1kg of food.
"That's quite high, right? We wanted for it to be zero food waste but that's impossible."
She attributed the food wastage to unplanned food preparation by traders.
"During the early days, they should look at the trend.
"If business is slow on weekdays, for example, they could reduce the amount of food they are selling," she said.
She said traders selling pre-packed food were also contributing to the increase in food wastage as it forced patrons to buy more than what they might need.
"You cannot buy just two kuih, you have to buy five. We want to try two types of kuih, but we can't, and if we buy two, we can't finish them.
"I asked sellers to sell me half of the portion, but they didn't allow me to do so… that's a bad attitude to gain profit just to finish whatever you're selling.
"This also adds up to the food wastage in our homes," she said, adding that to reduce waste, people should also plan their purchases at bazaars. She encouraged buyers to bring their own containers and to reuse bags.