Team:CIEI-China/Project/Background
Contents
Background
Brief Introduction
There is one thing people are longing for: a greener world. However, ever since industrial revolution, our environment has been facing an increasingly overwhelming situation: air pollution, energy shortage, global warming…
Among all the environmental problems, management of waste is a big issue, especially food waste. According to FAO, nearly 1.3 billion tons of food including fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, bakery, and dairy products were lost along the food supply chain in 2012 (FAO, 2012).
Because of its complex composition, food waste is very hard to dispose or utilize. Furthermore, without proper management, it will lend to tremendous harms to our environment and health. Countries all over the world are making great efforts to solve this problem; however, there is still a long way to go.
Urgent Situation
We Produce Massive Amounts of Food Waste
Food waste (precooked and leftover) comes from various sources, particularly from food production industries and daily household. Annually, developed and developing countries produce massive amounts of food waste (Fig. 1). For example, in China, the most densely populated country, the food waste reaches a striking amount of 195 million tons each year (Fig. 1b), which equals to the food supply for 200,000,000 people each year. Therefore, effectively dispose these huge amounts of food waste has become a must.
Fig. 1 Worldwide Generation of Food Waste in Developed and Developing Countries
The Composition of Food Waste is Complicated
Because of its complicated composition, Food waste disposal is much more difficult than ordinary waste management. Unlike other kinds of waste, food waste is composed mostly of water (70%-80%); it contains rich amounts of organic substances, such as sugar, protein, and lipid; salt concentration is also especially high. Although in different parts of the world, the proportion of different components may differ in values, the main components are the same (Fig. 2,3) (Tang et al., 2008; Pan, 2006). These characteristics of food waste make it more likely to decay, produce repulsive smell and corrosive solution, and thus deteriorate the environment.
Fig. 2 Composition of Food Waste in the United States
Fig. 3 Composition of Food Waste in China
