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Grand Hyatt Singapore implements organic food waste management system, reducing waste production of the hotel and converts the waste into useable fertiliser.
The hotel received a grant of S$250,000 through the 3R (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle) Fund for the installation and implementation of the system. The grant is calculated based on key outcomes such as the actual quantity of waste reduced or recycled.
The 3R Fund, created by the National Environmental Agency, is a co-funding scheme to encourage organisations to undertake waste minimisation and recycling projects.
This new organic food waste management system touches on the first and the third of the three focus points in Hyatt’s 2020 sustainability plans.
The installation and implementation system uses two individual systems that operate in sequence:
- an integrated food waste disposal system which extracts water, grinds and compacts food waste from the restaurants and event kitchens
- a ‘Rapid Thermophilic Digestion System’ which then converts compacted food waste into pathogen-free organic fertiliser.
The ‘Rapid Thermophilic Digestion System’ subsequently recycles the compacted food waste into organic fertiliser and this will be used only for the hotel’s landscaping purposes.
This innovative system enables the hotel to keep 100% of its organic food waste out of the city’s landfills - drastically reducing the property’s overall waste production and will be good for environment of the city.
The hotel said that this will also boost productivity and hygiene levels, as food waste will be transferred into the integrated in-feed stations located at various dishwashing and food preparation areas, and transported via the vacuum system into the centralised grinder and dewatering unit.
As a result, manpower is no longer required to physically move food waste into the waste compacters. About 55,000 trash bags will be saved each year, and this further contributes to the green efforts of this project which has an estimated payback period of less than 3 years.
This new waste recycling infrastructure saves Grand Hyatt Singapore approximately S$100,000 a year in food waste haulage fees and operational expenses. By eliminating the need for food waste haulage, the hotel will further reduce its carbon footprint.
Spearheaded by Executive Chef Lucas Glanville, this milestone achievement would also not have been possible without the dedication of Grand Hyatt Singapore’s Business Analyst Darrell Tan, Director of Engineering Ivan Leong, Stewarding Manager Vijay Sivarajah and the secretarial support of Anita Lukman.
Food waste is created in Singapore every single day from our food cycle - production, distribution, retail to consumption - and the wastage is huge and still looming to become a problem for the country.
According to the National Environment Agency, Singapore wasted approximately 790,000 tonnes of food in 2014 and it's still looming to become a problem to the country.
Typically, food waste would go to a landfill where it would decompose, or it would go to an incinerator.
"The issue with landfills obviously is the emissions of landfill gas, which is basically methane. This is a very bad greenhouse gas - it is 23 times worse than carbon dioxide," said Mr Edwin Khew, chairman of the Association of Sustainable Energy (SEAS)
At the present, burning food waste is Singapore’s primary method of waste disposal which uses enormous amounts of energy to do.
Singapore has only one landfill left - Semakau Landfill - and it is expected to run out of space if habits do not change.
It has been reported that Singapore’s landfill will run out of space between 2035 and 2045, if the nation continues to dispose of more than three million tonnes of rubbish a year.