Tags
consumer, enterprise, Environment, food, food waste, recycling, wastage
To start off the environment topic, we look at one issue that is closely linked to our everyday lives. The production of food waste in Singapore has long been recognised as a problem, but a look at the statistics shows just how bad the problem is:
As pointed out here and here, the scale of the problem has gotten even worse in the past 5 years, making this a pressing problem — and one that is directly influenced by consumer (i.e. our) habits.
Of course, this is not solely due to individuals and families wasting food directly in our everyday consumption; that would be far too simplistic a view. An investigative final-year report by a group of NTU students, Food Waste Republic (the main website unfortunately appears to be defunct, but a summary, presentation slides and an accompanying report do enough to give a good idea of the content) point out that consumer preferences strongly influence significant food wastage further up the food supply chain, from the presentation of fruits and vegetables and the preference for fully-stocked shelves, to the abundance (and thus wastage) in restaurants and hotel banquets.
Obviously, this is not a problem limited to Singapore. One interesting attempted solution is an upcoming business venture that takes food items past their ‘best-by’ or ‘sell-by’ date (or are thrown out for other reasons) and sells them at much cheaper prices; the basic idea is simply that most such foods are not actually expired, but are past their best condition and are probably unattractive to the consumer.
Ideas and Events 
Singapore is a nation state that lacks natural resources but focuses on financial transactions and relies on massive value added exports to gain revenue for the country. This also means that food is mostly imported from overseas with exceptions such as eggs. With most of our food coming from outside the country, food wastage should not be a problem as many would view the lack of local produce as a reason not to waste food.
However this is simply not the case, Singapore holds a wealthy population in terms of average income, this means that most Singaporeans are able to afford food beyond what they require. This generally means people order more than they need to resulting in wastage. Furthermore, Singapore is also known for it’s fast array and variety of good food, these sentiments are shared by local people who consistently try different types of food per meal and throw away what they simply cannot finish.
Lastly. it could also be viewed as a social stigma, the “Kiasu” attitude or mindset of Singaporeans which simply means not being willing to lose out. This can be related to many irregular behaviors among Singaporeans that involves products with limited supply. In the case of food, it could be possible that many over order to ensure that they are full, thus eliminating the possibility that they would be required to get up and buy another meal. Most of the time this leads to further wastage and hence accounting for much of this issue.