Clean Our Plate: The Bandaraya Initiative

THE PROBLEM

Food waste has been contributing to the massive landfills of Malaysia, which will generate Methane gas, a form of greenhouse gas, that will ultimately contribute to global warming. Global warming can alter the ecosystem drastically, including the geolocation where species live, how they interact, and the timing of biological events, which could fundamentally transform current ecosystems and food webs. Global warming can overwhelm the capacity of ecosystems to mitigate extreme events and disturbance, such as wildfire, which happened recently in Australia, rising in sea levels which will eventually cause floods, and drought.

Food waste is among the highest waste generated in Malaysia, where the total waste generated per day is 38,000 tonnes and food waste comprises 15,000 tonnes out of the total waste per day,  approximately 31% to 45% of the total volume waste generated. Out of the total food waste per day, 60% is avoidable food waste whilst the rest of the 40% is still edible food which was wasted by Malaysians. Households are the main contributor to food wastage in Malaysia. Its food waste occupies most of the landfill. While there have been government policies and NGOs taking actions curbing food waste in industrial and retail level, food waste at the consumer level has rarely been tapped into. This is caused by the attitude,awareness and actions of the general public towards food wastage. Hence, it can be concluded that these wastes can be rescued to save the environment AND to be donated back to the community in need, as the amount of the food waste per day could have fed up to 2 million people.

THE SOLUTION

The donation will be accommodated with a challenge, where potential donors check their refrigerators for expired food, beverages, and ingredients, take a photo and upload it on social media with a hashtag and tag their friends and family to challenge them with said challenge, influencing others to be aware of the unknowing food waste within everyone’s refrigerator.

The donation will help our cause by directly funding our project named Clean Our Plate, where it helps raise awareness of the importance of food waste management amongst youths in a targeted community. It also aims to change youths’ attitudes towards food wastage, by personally connecting this issue towards themselves, so that they are willing to take actions against food wastage. Last but not least, the project ensures youths consistently take easy and obvious actions to solve the food waste issue through the action initiatives created by Clean Our Plate.

Through the Clean Our Plate project, AIESEC in Sunway will be providing food waste awareness workshops to government highschool students which would first aim to focus on food waste awareness and move the focus forward to action plans on food waste management. The workshops would be executed by volunteers whom AIESEC has recruited from all around the world. The breakdown of the activities are as below:

Week 1

Activities

• Ice Breaking Games

• Asking Question & Request for Clarifications regarding the project 

• Getting training sessions from like-minded organisations on the initiatives to be conducted to the high school students

• Cross-cultural sharing Sessions

Purpose

• To evaluate the students’ level of awareness on food waste

• To evaluate the students’ level of understanding on food waste 

• To require students to communicate with us in English

Week 2, 3, 4, 5

Activities

• Food waste awareness workshops set up at highschool compounds

• Educating students on composting and planting at highschool compounds

• Educating students on using enzymes as cleaning agent out of fruit peels to reduce food waste

• Educating students on converting fruit peels into fruit jams to reduce food waste

Purpose

• To implement actionable plans for students to reduce food waste on their own

• To foster deep understanding of the consequences from actions amongst students

• To provide them real-life communication skills to prepare them for further learnings

THE IMPACT

Clean Our Plate by AIESEC in Sunway has currently been carried out by schools in the past and has impacted 50 to 100 students in total. At the end of the six-week period of projects, many students and teachers have gained knowledge on food waste management. They have shown their interest and support for the project after seeing the results and positive impact to the highschool compound, now with lesser food waste and more greeneries. With your support, we are aiming to be able to carry out our project in more schools and have more activities to further amplify our reach and impact. 

Many people may have mistaken Clean Our Plate is simply to finish up the food on our plate to reduce food waste. However, it’s more than just managing our food intake, but also on every aspect on a consumer level because it has rarely been tapped on, compared to food waste on a retail or industrial level. Its objective includes the changing in understandings, perspective, and behaviour towards food and ultimately waste lesser food through many strategies thought throughout the projects.

The importance of food waste management has never been emphasised on within our community. Throughout the years, food waste has been steadily increasing and climate change  has negatively impacted the environment throughout the years which will ultimately affect flore, fauna, and the humankind. The ability to manage food waste via awareness spreading and actionable plans, is the ability to influence and inspire people into taking up changes in their lifestyles that further save the environment. Youth plays an important role as they are the ones who wasted the most volume food and they are the ones who will be most influential in the future, hence them being our target community for this project.

With the donation, the campaign can help directly fund the project Clean Our Plate, with the objective of saving the environment through influencing the youth community’s actions and behaviours upon food waste. The project being feasible to be run with the help of donation will ultimately achieve the objective as mentioned above. 

Goal Breakdown

Goal 1 - Workshops and Action Initiatives. Amount Needed: MYR3,500.00

Goal 2 - Transportation. Amount Needed: MYR1,000.00

Goal 3 - Operational Costs. Amount Needed: MYR500.00

Every cent donated by you counts, in helping us create an impact!