CUHK
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Nearly ten thousand tonnes of municipal solid waste is produced in Hong Kong everyday. About 40% of it is food waste (over 3,500 tonnes). Food waste not only adds pressure to our already-strained landfills, it also wastes valuable resources. In order to encourage staff and students to treasure food resources, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) launched a 2-year programme ‘Love Food Hate Waste @CUHK–Education Campaign and Food Waste Reduction & Recycling Programme’ today (18 September), with an aim to raise awareness and reduce food waste through various kinds of activities. 

At the launching ceremony, Prof. Fung Tung, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK and Associate Director of Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability remarked, ‘CUHK has long been putting green measures into practice, raising awareness and striving towards a sustainable campus. The food waste problem in Hong Kong is getting worse. We, as part of the community, must work harder to reduce food waste. It is expected that the campus food waste will be reduced by 20% after two years.’ Professor Fung also cited the well-known saying in Chinese: ‘Each and every grain of rice in your bowl is the result of farmers’ hard work’ to illustrate why wasting food is often said to be a sin: 1) It shows blatant disregard for the painstaking labour farmers put into crop production. 2) It wastes resources like land, nutrients, water, etc., used to produce crops and livestock. 3) It is unfair to people who are suffering from hunger and malnutrition – when the situation is worsen by the unequal distribution of resources making wasteful people’s lifestyle possible. Through the Programme, Professor Fung hopes that young people can learn to treasure food as a precious resource. ‘Love Food’ is the core spirit of the campaign, and reducing waste at source is the key to the success of solving the waste problem. 

Prof. Fung Tung also visited a campus canteen to support the student body CUHK Green World’s ‘Clean the Plate’ promotion programme. Together with Green World committee members, Professor Fung presented canteen coupons to diners who finished their meals and also encouraged diners who were unable to do so to treasure food. 

‘Love Food Hate Waste@CUHK’ is supported and jointly organized with Green World, The Leftovers and Greeners Action. It is composed of many activities including the premiere of a microfilm as well as the production of brochures and posters featuring ways to reduce food waste. The microfilm was directed, edited and produced by the group ‘The Leftovers’, which is founded by and composed of mainly CUHK students (mms://winmedia.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/cpso/GO/TheLeftovers-LittleRice.wmv). Moreover, coupons have also been presented to diners in campus canteens since January 2013 to encourage people not to waste food. Up to now, over 300 coupons have been presented.  In addition, CUHK has installed two food waste decomposer machines to convert food waste collected from campus canteens to soil conditioner (commonly referred to as ‘compost’), for landscaping use on campus. 

CUHK Green Pioneer Series – Low Carbon Living 

CUHK is privileged to have a green campus that is among the most beautiful in Asia. In 2008 and 2009, the University was recognized at the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence by reaping the silver award and gold award respectively under the category of Public Organizations and Utilities, setting a model of sustainability in the academic sector. 

CUHK will build on its outstanding achievements in carbon reduction, water saving, paper saving, ecosystem conservation, and environmental education. It will launch more innovative projects to promote green actions in daily life and share its latest green works through the Green Pioneer Series – Low Carbon Living, bringing its experiences off-campus and share them with the public to promote green living.