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N. Wid and L. F. Ayut
to materials used mainly for food packaging and wrappings such as plastic, glass
and many other synthetic materials. Meanwhile, degradable kitchen wastes refer to
wastes that can degrade such as food wastes (Guttentag 2014), including rice leftover,
vegetables and fruits peels. One of the main disposal technique of food waste is by
landfilling, thus, high generation of food waste may lead to overflowing of landfill
sites. Consequently, contributes to leachate release, air pollution by food decay and
odour problems (Zhang et al. 2005).
Food waste has high organic content; thus, they are potentially high in phosphorus
content, an essential nutrient for living organisms. Phosphorus (P) regards as the most
crucial ingredient in food production where it has been used as fertiliser ingredients
in agricultural industry. To date, the depletion issue of P is one of the main concern
as P is an element which cannot be synthesised or manufactured elsewhere. The
prominent source of P is from phosphate rock, which was predicted to be depleted
within 100 years, due to the world’s high demand especially in fertiliser industry
(Song et al. 2014; Cordell et al. 2009, 2011; Ashley et al. 2011). Unlike oil, P is a nonrenewable source, naturally limited and has no substitute when it reaches its scarcity.
Nevertheless, it can be recovered from organic wastes by using proper methods such
as anaerobic digestion (Wid et al. 2017; Wid and Horan 2016). Anaerobic digestion
is a decomposition of organic material in the absence of oxygen, where it is becoming
an emerging technique for resource recovery (Wid and Horan 2016). Ironically, not
many people are aware that the leftover on their plates is very rich in nutrient, in
which unconsciously the nutrients are lost when disposed on landfill, thus leads to
high waste generation and many environmental issues.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), located in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia,
has established the EcoCampus Management Centre in 2013 in which one of the
elements the university committed to incorporate is environmental consideration in
its planning and activities. Therefore, the present study used food waste sample
collected from Tun Mustapha Residences, to consider environmental issues such as
waste production and odour problem from food waste. Tun Mustapha Residences
is one of the student residences in UMS with a high number of boarders with 1746
students (UMS Housing and Hospitality Section 2018). It is estimated about 10%
of students turned up for lunch which contributed to the production of 14 g food
waste every day by each student (14 g food waste/person/day). In order to secure the
source of P and instead of regarding the excess P in soils as a pollutant, it is more
beneficial to remove and recover them as a back up for phosphate rock which takes
millions of years to be formed. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify the physical
and chemical characteristics of kitchen food waste from Tun Mustapha Residences;
and also to determine waste reduction and the potential of phosphorus recovery in
the form of struvite through anaerobic digestion.
N. Wid and L. F. Ayut
to materials used mainly for food packaging and wrappings such as plastic, glass
and many other synthetic materials. Meanwhile, degradable kitchen wastes refer to
wastes that can degrade such as food wastes (Guttentag 2014), including rice leftover,
vegetables and fruits peels. One of the main disposal technique of food waste is by
landfilling, thus, high generation of food waste may lead to overflowing of landfill
sites. Consequently, contributes to leachate release, air pollution by food decay and
odour problems (Zhang et al. 2005).
Food waste has high organic content; thus, they are potentially high in phosphorus
content, an essential nutrient for living organisms. Phosphorus (P) regards as the most
crucial ingredient in food production where it has been used as fertiliser ingredients
in agricultural industry. To date, the depletion issue of P is one of the main concern
as P is an element which cannot be synthesised or manufactured elsewhere. The
prominent source of P is from phosphate rock, which was predicted to be depleted
within 100 years, due to the world’s high demand especially in fertiliser industry
(Song et al. 2014; Cordell et al. 2009, 2011; Ashley et al. 2011). Unlike oil, P is a nonrenewable source, naturally limited and has no substitute when it reaches its scarcity.
Nevertheless, it can be recovered from organic wastes by using proper methods such
as anaerobic digestion (Wid et al. 2017; Wid and Horan 2016). Anaerobic digestion
is a decomposition of organic material in the absence of oxygen, where it is becoming
an emerging technique for resource recovery (Wid and Horan 2016). Ironically, not
many people are aware that the leftover on their plates is very rich in nutrient, in
which unconsciously the nutrients are lost when disposed on landfill, thus leads to
high waste generation and many environmental issues.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), located in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia,
has established the EcoCampus Management Centre in 2013 in which one of the
elements the university committed to incorporate is environmental consideration in
its planning and activities. Therefore, the present study used food waste sample
collected from Tun Mustapha Residences, to consider environmental issues such as
waste production and odour problem from food waste. Tun Mustapha Residences
is one of the student residences in UMS with a high number of boarders with 1746
students (UMS Housing and Hospitality Section 2018). It is estimated about 10%
of students turned up for lunch which contributed to the production of 14 g food
waste every day by each student (14 g food waste/person/day). In order to secure the
source of P and instead of regarding the excess P in soils as a pollutant, it is more
beneficial to remove and recover them as a back up for phosphate rock which takes
millions of years to be formed. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify the physical
and chemical characteristics of kitchen food waste from Tun Mustapha Residences;
and also to determine waste reduction and the potential of phosphorus recovery in
the form of struvite through anaerobic digestion.