FOOD RECYCLING SCHEME IS BENEFICIAL FOR COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY

FOOD RECYCLING SCHEME IS BENEFICIAL FOR COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY

Hong Kong is famous for its delicious foods and has been named Food Paradise by the editor of Xihuanet[1] for years, it also brings a serious commercial food waste problem to our city. Restaurants or supermarkets prepares more than the demanded amounts of food in order to ensure sufficiency for customers. Other than the traditional way of throwing the commercial food waste in the landfills, food recycling is the best solution for the problem. Here are three main reasons why joining a food recycling scheme is the most favorable way for the food operation to tackle the food waste problem.

Supporters of the traditional solution may argue that joining those food recycling programs may increase the financial burden of restaurants’ owners since a documentary from ATV[2] mentioned that most of the Chinese restaurants’ managers believed the biggest barrier of taking part in food recycling scheme is that they do not have enough funds and space for storing the recycling bins.

 However, food recycling scheme will bring the economic advantages in the long term. On the one hand, since the existing landfills are expected to be full by 2015, the Environment Bureau on 20^th may, 2013 unveiled "Hong Kong: Blueprint for Sustainable Use of Resources 2013-2022", which mentioned the earliest implementation year of waste charging scheme will start from 2016. In other words, operators have to be responsible and pay for the amount of food waste. Take the current situation in Britain as an example. The main concept of rubbish disposal in Britain is Away from landfill. Owners of supermarkets have to pay fifty dollars per tonne for waste disposal levy if they throw away their food waste into landfills, while they can choose to pay a sixteen-dollar administrative fee for donating the unwanted food to the food bank[3]. As a result, the numbers of commercial food waste decline[4]. Therefore, since the Hong Kong government decided to charge for the disposing cost in 2016, joining the food recycling scheme is more financially beneficial and a economically sensible step for the food operation in the future.

 On the other hand, food operations can also profited from the food waste. Wong Yuk Chun, person in charge of Kowloon Biotechnology, showed that each tonne of pellet food which made from food waste is worth around 6000 dollars[5]. When comparing it to the import pellet food priced $15000 per tonne, the inexpensive price of local production has a huge market in Hong Kong. In other words, there is a huge demand of food waste for the food recycling organization to produce pellet food or other organic products in Hong Kong. Food operations can easily find the suitable recycling organizations or companies to deal with the food waste. Furthermore, once a restaurant provides sufficient leftover to those organic production company as production raw materials, the restaurant can earn from it.

Other than gaining economic interest directly, make good use of food waste enables firms to enhance their corporate image. Since the environmental protection concept has been a widespread concern among residents nowadays. Companies participate in food recycling scheme can help sending the image that they are eco-friendly and care about the food waste problem in Hong Kong. The Cone Communication’s 2013 Green Gap Trend Tracker report also shows that more and more customers consider a company’s environmental record while making purchasing decisions[6]. On the one hand, the promotion of the food recycling schemes’ members or firms can help those firms building up a positive corporate image to the customers. As time passes, the positive cooperate image of eco-friendly can be part of their selling points and attract customers to visit to their restaurants in the long term.

On the other hand, food distribution enables more to enjoy the foods of companies. After signing up the non-responsibility contract, companies do not have to take any responsibility if there are any health problem occurs because of the bad quality of unwanted foods. Therefore, owners of restaurants or supermarkets do not have to worry about the responsibility problem but to provide more opportunities for citizens to try the food of their company. That means when people find that the taste of foods are delicious after receiving them from the food recycling organizations, they may purchase those foods next time. Therefore, taking part in the food recycling scheme can be a way of promotion and attracting new customers for companies in the future.

To conclude, taking part in food recycling scheme not only help the food operations to save the waste charging fees, but also help increase the income of them in different ways. However, in spite of the fact that the implementation of food recycling schemes can alleviate the burden of landfills and bring lots of benefit to Hong Kong, support from the government is not sufficient. A questionnaire conducted during September by the Greeners Action reveals that the main difficulties for the non-government or charity organizations is that there is a lack of financial assistance from the general public and the government[7]. Unfortunately, the insufficient manpower or delivery fees may affect the expansion of these types of programs. Therefore, other than the existing food recycling scheme or projects from the government, it is important for the Hong Kong government to give sufficient support to the NGOs too. Giving them ability to expend their programs not only can help reduce the commercial food waste simultaneously, but also help developing a new business in Hong Kong, which provides more and more job opportunities to the citizens.

References

1.SinaBeiJing, (2013), 環保組織指香港食物回收業困難重重 或面臨倒閉潮, [Retrieved From http://finance.sina.com.hk/news/-1-6215788/1.html ]

2. ATV,(2012) 《時事追擊》 食物銀行 廚餘回收, [Retrievedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9t--9_afNA]

3. cou4 interactive (2013), 湊四信息圖：垃圾徵費減廚餘, [Retrieved From the image of http://www.cou4.com/reduce-food-waste/ ]

4. MinBao, (2013), 英專家：增建材堆填稅 促循環再用, [Retrieved From http://news.sina.com.hk/news/20131102/-2-3105920/1.html ]

5. wenwaipao, 2010, 企業回收廚餘 製魚糧減浪, [Retrieved From http://paper.wenweipo.com/2010/09/20/HK1009200023.htm ]

6. MSDN Blog, This Week in Sustainability: Consumers Consider a Company’s Social and Environmental Responsibility When Making Purchasing Decisions, [Retrieved From http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2013/04/this-week-in-sustainability-consumers-consider-a-company%E2%80%99s-social-and-environmental-responsibility-when-making-purchasing-decisions/ ]

7. Sina Hong Kong, 2013, 環保組織指香港食物回收業困難重重 或面臨倒閉潮, [Retrieved From http://finance.sina.com.hk/news/-1-6215788/1.html]

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[1]SinaBeiJing, (2013), 環保組織指香港食物回收業困難重重 或面臨倒閉潮, [Retrieved From http://finance.sina.com.hk/news/-1-6215788/1.html ]

[2]ATV,(2012) 《時事追擊》 食物銀行 廚餘回收, [Retrievedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9t--9_afNA]

[3] cou4 interactive (2013), 湊四信息圖：垃圾徵費減廚餘, [Retrieved From the image of http://www.cou4.com/reduce-food-waste/ ]

[4]MinBao, (2013), 英專家：增建材堆填稅 促循環再用, [Retrieved From http://news.sina.com.hk/news/20131102/-2-3105920/1.html ]

[5] wenwaipao, 2010, 企業回收廚餘 製魚糧減浪, [Retrieved From http://paper.wenweipo.com/2010/09/20/HK1009200023.htm ]

[6] MSDN Blog, This Week in Sustainability: Consumers Consider a Company’s Social and Environmental Responsibility When Making Purchasing Decisions, [Retrieved From http://msdnrss.thecoderblogs.com/2013/04/this-week-in-sustainability-consumers-consider-a-company%E2%80%99s-social-and-environmental-responsibility-when-making-purchasing-decisions/ ]

[7] Sina Hong Kong, 2013, 環保組織指香港食物回收業困難重重 或面臨倒閉潮, [Retrieved From http://finance.sina.com.hk/news/-1-6215788/1.html]

What should I major in?

   Like many other students in the university, all I wish is to get admitted by my favorite program after finishing my one year university studies life. Being a television reporter is one of my dream jobs since I was a child. Therefore, in the following three years, I would like to take the media and communication courses as my major.

  Shooting in front of a camera is not only a process of reporting, but also the procedure of raising the public awareness of social issues. In order to changing the political apathy problem of Hong Kong citizens, the first and most important thing is to provide an attractive news program. Lots of people reviewed that the reason why they are not interested in watching news on television or reading newspapers are mainly because they get bored of the old reporting methods of Hong Kong. Therefore, after studying in the media and communication courses and getting the basic knowledge of reporting news, I hope I can discover the most efficient way of reporting and improving the reporting quality of Hong Kong news programs, which may help attracting the audience and improving the political apathy problem in future.

  Other than reporting every-day news, another job responsibility of television reporters is to produce numbers of current affair programs, like Sunday Report of RTHK. Coordinate with the new and high-tech facilities of the Creative Media Centre of City University. I can learn the ways of finding comprehensive sources and the skills of interviewing people by using different kind of devices or applications. I can also grasp the deep idea of the whole production process by getting in touch with the virtual production environment and producing those programs during my studies. It is hoped that I can familiarize with the producing procedures and the working environment before I get into the real ones.

  Studying in the media and communication department also provides me a valuable internship opportunity. Due to the limited television station in Hong Kong, there are only a few of job opportunities. As a result, it is difficult for people to earn a television reporter internship chances other than the transformation of university. Therefore, if I can get into this department and perform well after I get the internship chances, I may get admired by the employees and employed by the company, such as ATV or TVB. In the other words, getting into the media and communication department not only provides me a great learning experience, but also gives me one practical thing after I get graduated: job opportunity.

  Apart from saying what the course can benefit my future career plan, I think my own personalities are suitable for this department.

  On the one hand, since being a television reporter have to pronounce more than thousands of words within fifteen minutes, the legible pronunciation of wordings is always my advantage of being a television reporter. As two consecutive champions and the best presenter of the inter-class theme based presentation at my secondary school, my teachers always praise me with my fluency and tone of speaking. On the other hand, I am a logical person who can analyze affairs easily. Since reporters have to report issues in a comprehensive way, critical and analytical thinking are required for the job. And after the past six years practices or examinations of liberal studies, these required personalities become one of the strengthens of my studies.

  To conclude, studying in the media and communication department not only benefit my future career plan, but my own personalities also show that I am capable of this department. Therefore ,I choose it as my major in the following years.

 

First assignment -My secondary school (descriptive writing)

 It is a mysterious place to the outside world. Surrounded by hills, located in a

peaceful corner of the famously crowded Mong Kok, following practices of a traditional religion in the fast changing and modern world, it is a green house of mine. That is my secondary school, an exception to the outside world, a place allowed me to grow into a person I am now.

Walking upon a steep, yet remarkable path to my classroom was my daily routine back in those remarkable years. The steepness gave me incentive to make up earlier, so that I can earn more time on the path. To prevent being over-whelmed by sweat and exhaustion, the healthy habit of sleeping and waking early is formed. There are unpleasant, yet precious memories in my growth.

 The unique structure of my school building grew with me too. The main building is conjoined by three Victorian architectures, elegant and beautiful. The massive and fascinating architecture of my school building confused me on my first visit to this wonderland.  Wandering along the corridor of the fifth floor, you will have a simple understanding to my secondary school life. My classroom is a lot larger in area than, normal classrooms, you can still see decorations from last Christmas, photos of us on the notice board, black scratches formed by boy’s leather shoes while they are running around...Adjacent to the classroom, is the music room. It is a semispherical room, designed for the sake of the quality of music performed. A classical grand piano is stood in the middle of the room, I can still picture us singing around the piano every music lesson.

 “Hey!!” “You can do it!” I can still remember the screams and cheers on the courtside within the red brick wall. Competitions and sports lessons are held in the basketball court, me and my follow schoolmates gave out our sweat; of youth in this well-constructed  sports ground. Every time there are competitions and races, me and my classmates will shout and cheer for athletes representing our class. United and passionate, we are always willing to join these exciting feasts of sports as a whole, our morale is so strong that seems like the wall of red bricks will collapse due to our ultra-sound emitted.

 Another popular site is the canteen and it is located in a small valley. There are no fish balls, no instant noodles, and no junk food provided, but surprisingly, it is always flooded with oceans of students. The best adjective of describing our canteen is noisy. Not only the noise of students eating their meals, nut also the sound of students discussing their project or chatting.

One more important thing of our canteen that deserve a mention is that the scent of cooked rice will run into every corners of the campus, and into our sensory system before every single lunch time. It gave us hope, and motivation of not to sleep during boring lessons.

  We love to share our words and our lives in this valley of love, friendship and care.

 Those six years of youth and passion may not be perfect, but every drop of tears and sparkling smile made my experience remarkable.