A study on domestic food waste collection cum waste-to-energy facility for village housing in Hong Kong

Abstract

Domestic food waste has long been the largest constituent in municipal solid waste (MSW) to be disposed of in landfills of Hong Kong. With the already saturating landfill space and adverse environmental impacts food waste has brought about during decomposition at landfills, the treatment of food waste disposal at landfill is no longer a sustainable approach. While the government has implemented a comprehensive food waste management strategy in response to the challenge, domestic food waste from village housing has always been ignored. In view of this, the study aims to investigate the feasibility of collecting domestic food waste from households in remote villages and turning it into useful energy using on-site food waste collection cum food waste-to-energy facility. In order to achieve the aim, literature review, questionnaire survey and interview were conducted in the study. The study revealed that the proposed facility could be incorporated with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for accurate recording of food waste disposal under village housing arrangement, and composting would be a suitable technology to be adopted in the proposed facility for converting food waste into nutritious fertiliser. A total of 125 participants partook in the questionnaire survey between January and March 2018. According to the survey result, 90% and 91% of the respondents expressed their willingness to separate food waste at source at home and showed their support to the proposed food waste collection cum food waste-to-energy facility respectively. Nonetheless, while 31% of the respondents expressed no concern on the proposed facility, odour nuisance that might be generated from the proposed facility remained the greatest worry amongst the remaining respondents. In particular, a multinomial logistic regression model had shown a statistical association between education level and having no concern on the proposed facility (p < 0.05). Villagers’ attitude towards the proposed facility, considerations and constraints on the installation of the proposed facility and management of the proposed facility were discussed in an interview conducted with a village representative. In light of the results and findings observed from the study, recommendations including enhancement on villagers’ awareness on MSW and food waste problems in Hong Kong, enrichment programme and assistance on food waste separation at source to villagers, installation of state-of-the-art food waste collection cum food waste-to-energy facility in villages as well as management means of operation and maintenance of the proposed food waste collection cum food waste-to-energy facility were put forward. Limitations of the study were addressed, which subsequently stresses that possible future studies such as researches from an economic perspective would be beneficial for a more holistic review on food waste management in village housing in Hong Kong.