Channel NewsAsia 16 Mar 08;
SINGAPORE: Food waste gets a whole new meaning when food is no longer just thrown into incinerators – now, food is recycled for a good cause.
Chinatown Hawker Centre is the first hawker centre to participate in the segregate food waste project launched by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Southeast Asia's first food waste recycling plant, IUT Singapore.
After collection, food waste is brought to the plant where the conversion of organic waste to biogas begins.
Leon Khew, Assistant Plant Manager, IUT Singapore, said: "We're producing renewable energy, so we're using food waste to produce biogas. From this biogas, we run it into gas engines, and from there we actually produce green energy."
At full capacity, the plant is estimated to be able to produce more than 6MW of electrical energy per hour – enough power for over 10,000 households.
The recycling plant also ensures that nothing goes to waste.
"We are able to produce compost, which actually goes back to planting trees and flowers etc, so this is what we call 'closing the carbon loop'," said Mr Khew.
The Singapore Green Plan aims to raise the recycling rate of food waste from the current 8 percent to 30 percent by the year 2012.
- CNA/so
