1 minute read
CONCLUSION
from Waste Deep: An Exploratory Study of the Waste Generated by the Hospitality Industry in Hong Kong
5. POTENTIAL FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
As stated in the introduction, this research project was exploratory and aimed to gather some qualitative and quantitative insights about the waste generated by the hospitality industry in order to start a constructive dialogue with the different stakeholders involved in the waste issue in Hong Kong: hospitality businesses, their staff, the guests, Government agencies, NGOs as well as waste contractors.
Advertisement
Hopefully, this research project will encourage other actors to take a deeper look at the type and amount of waste generated by the industry, starting by understanding if the food wasted in Hong Kong is mostly avoidable or non-avoidable for example, and where does the waste come from: guests, kitchens, or poor stock management.
These types of measurements can already be implemented at outlet levels, and we encourage all outlets who are already measuring their waste to take this extra step and to try to understand where this waste comes from and what it is made of. Ideally, this data should be made publicly available in a centralized and anonymized database in order to improve data collection from hospitality businesses in Hong Kong and increase the reliability of the waste statistics.
After identifying the composition of food waste, it is then easier to calculate the cost of the wastage. As mentioned above, a closer look into the business case for reducing food waste for the different types of restaurants in the context of Hong Kong could maybe help in convincing more hospitality businesses to reduce their waste. Such research doesn’t exist today.
Finally, Hong Kong being world-renowned as a “Foodie Paradise”, it would be interesting to compare the food wasted by a single person or a family in a restaurant with the food wasted by a home-cooked meal. Indeed, given that Hongkongers eat on average 5 times out per week, an assessment of the influence of this habit versus cooking at home would be helpful in identifying other behavioral changes to explore in order to reduce food waste.
