Ramadan bazaar food waste to be turned into liquid fertiliser

MPAJ’s Zero Waste Campaign at Pandan Indah Ramadan bazaar aims to educate visitors on segregating food and non-food waste.

FOOD waste from a Ramadan bazaar in Ampang Jaya, Selangor, will be turned into fertiliser using the local council’s anaerobic digestion (AD) machine.

Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) president Dr Ani Ahmad said leftover or discarded food would be collected from the Pandan Indah Ramadan bazaar daily to be processed into liquid fertiliser.

“In anticipation of the increase in food waste during this period, we want to avoid at least a portion going straight to the landfill.

“After the waste is collected, it will be sent to our AD facility in Jalan Kolam Ayer Lama.

“It is a pilot project, which is why we focus on this particular bazaar first,” she told StarMetro.

“The AD machine is able to process 500kg of food waste in a day.

“We also collect food waste from restaurants and other premises,” she said.

She added that the facility started operations in July 2022.

Ani advised the people to buy only the amount of food they required from bazaars.

MPAJ’s Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Department is carrying out the Zero Waste Campaign at the bazaar in conjunction with Ramadan.

This campaign aims to educate, teach and disseminate information to bazaar visitors on separating their food waste from regular waste.

The department also carries out cleaning activities around the site of the bazaar after daily operations are over.