An equivalent of two bowls of food per person is thrown away every day, according to statistics.
But you can find people at the other end of the spectrum – such as a 60-year-old cardboard collector who wants to be known only as Madam Kwek.
She sifts through the discarded produce at the wet market at Lorong 1, Toa Payoh in the early mornings. The New Paper on Sunday found her peeping into the dumpsters.
She took a cursory glance into one of them and pulled out a red plastic bag of “tang oh” (garland chrysanthemum).
“Just wash it properly and it is edible,” she tells this reporter.
At 4am, stall owners at the wet market are busy sorting through vegetables and fruits to prepare them for sale.
No one bats an eyelid at Madam Kwek as she rummages for free through produce that was tossed out. She is allowed unhindered access to the dumpsters as she is a known cardboard collector in the area.
When asked why she would take food that has been rejected by others, Madam Kwek says: “I would rather buy fresh vegetables, but people throw away so much food that can still be eaten.
“If I see it and leave it there, it will be such a waste.”
She adds that the produce she picks up is not solely for her own consumption as she gives some of it away.
“I give some to the old folks back in my estate who can cook it. They know it is from the dumpster, but they trust that it is clean,” she says.
As a cardboard collector, Madam Kwek has a working relationship with some of the sellers in the wet market.
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SIFT
TNPS observed vegetable and fruit sellers passing cardboard or styrofoam boxes of unwanted produce to Madam Kwek and other cardboard collectors.
The latter will sift through the produce and pick out what they like before throwing the rest into the dumpsters.
This way, the sellers get a free hand with waste disposal while the cardboard collectors get to keep the boxes and produce.
The cardboard collectors collect mainly vegetables, fruit and bread. They avoid meat and fish as these go bad quickly.
Says Madam Kwek: “I’ve also been looking for people throwing away dried or canned food, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
At the stretch of vegetable stalls along Buffalo Road in Little India, people can be seen looking into the trash bins between 6pm and 8pm.
And at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, the biggest vegetables and fruit wholesale market in Singapore, even larger piles of unwanted produce are stacked up at the dumpsters, free for the taking.
Says a vegetable seller from Sri Mullai Trading in Buffalo Road: “In the evening when we start to throw out vegetables, there will be some uncles and aunties waiting to take the stuff.
“As long as they don’t create a mess, it is okay.”
One staff member at vegetable importer Hupco says produce is thrown away when they have yellowed or are deemed no longer fresh. Odd-looking produce is also thrown away despite being safe to eat, as customers simply do not buy them.
But he warns that people should not take food from dumpsters as it is an unhygienic practice.
“Most of these bins don’t get cleaned for a long time, and there must be plenty of bacteria in there. It is not worth it,” he says.
Read also: Cheap cabbage becomes a gourmet veg
ngjunsen@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on May 1, 2016.
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