Food waste is a significant component of the waste sent to landfill in Hong Kong. Since 2005, when we installed our first food decomposer at one of our Hong Kong shopping malls, we have been working with our hotels, restaurants and tenants to deepen our food waste reduction and recycling efforts. In 2021, we collected more than 9200 tonnes of food waste from our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland portfolios and our hotels, an increase of 25% compared with 2020.
In Hong Kong, Swire Properties leveraged a programme funded by the government’s Environment and Conservation Fund to promote food waste recycling amongst our tenants. In 2021, 70% of our F&B tenants in Citygate Outlets, Cityplaza, Island Place Mall, Pacific Place, and Taikoo Place participated in our food waste recycling programme; while the number of tenanted office floors recycling food waste also increased by over 30% compared to 2020.
The majority of the food waste collected in Hong Kong is delivered to the government’s O · PARK1 for conversion into compost and biogas. In November this year, we invited a group of employees and tenants to visit O · PARK1 to better understand the downstream treatment of the food waste they recycle in their everyday work lives.
This year, we also introduced new initiatives to repurpose food waste into useful products. EAST Hong Kong partnered with a local brewery to turn 30kg of surplus bread from its restaurants into its own branded craft beer. In support of the United Nations' International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, we also ran two “Ugly Fruit” jam-making workshops with a local food rescue NGO to raise awareness about the global food waste problem.