WORRYING TREND: The Qatar Statistics Authority noted last year that more than half of the municipal waste generated in Qatar contains discarded food.
By Anand Holla
In the holy month of Ramadan, marked by compassion for others and denial for the self, Qatar, like other Gulf countries, stirs itself into a peculiar problem — that of excess.
Almost half of the food prepared during Ramadan in Qatar finds itself dumped in the landfills, while 15 to 25 per cent of all food purchased or prepared in the Middle East during Ramadan meets the same fate.
While Middle East nations are counted among the world’s biggest food wasters, Ramadan sees a dramatic rise in the trend, finds Ecomena, a Doha-based advocacy platform on the need for a clean and green environment in the Middle East.
Leafing through his notes, Mohammed Abdulaziz Khalil, co-founder of Ecomena, drops dizzying statistics by the minute. “The per capita production of food waste in Arab cities such as Doha, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi is around 1 kg per day, placing them among the highest per capita food wasting cities in the world. With the rapid growth of regional economies, lavish lifestyles and increasing population, food waste has shot up. We have a food waste problem and Ramadan significantly amplifies it.”
It all starts with the shopping rounds. The festive atmosphere sends people into a buying spree, Khalil feels. “During Ramadan, people go out of their way shopping, thinking they have to feed guests and that they will consume everything they buy. But they don’t and it contributes to more food waste,” he points out.
“A lot of cooked food goes into trash cans as fatoor is usually not eaten as midnight snacks or as Suhoor the other day. Therefore, the demand for fresh food increases as the majority is willing to shell an extra amount for new, better quality of food,” says Khalil.
Twitter and Facebook have been rife with pictures of empty fridge and freezer sections at Doha’s supermarkets, often posted with sarcastic hashtags like #RamadanMubarak. “The demand for beef, mutton, chicken and other meat products increases by almost 50 per cent of the normal demand, which in itself is very high. Likewise in the case of vegetables, fruits and dairy products which, during Ramadan, fly out of supermarket shelves in no time,” says Khalil.
Saudi Arabia, for instance, has been found to be the biggest food waster in the world, in a study by King Saud University. Some 30 per cent of the four million dishes prepared during Ramadan are being thrown away uneaten at a cost of 1.2 million Saudi Riyals. As lifestyle in the region is undergoing a sea change, Ramadan has come to be associated with splurging and extravagance, Khalil points out.
“Dining out during Ramadan, for instance, has caught on as a trend. Five star hotels rolling out sumptuous Iftar and Suhoor buffets end up wasting almost half of the prepared food. When we were growing up, we never dined out. In fact, our family still doesn’t believe in eating out during Ramadan. The change in the way Ramadan is being celebrated is causing concerns. At least 1000 tons per day of food is wasted in Qatar alone, during Ramadan,” he says.
In Bahrain, more than 300 tons of organic food waste is being generated daily as domestic waste and this constitutes around 11 per cent of the total municipal waste. “These statistics point to loss of billions of dollars each year in the form of food waste throughout the Arab world,” Khalil says.
For a country that imports more than 90 per cent of its food due to unhelpful soil, scarcity of irrigation water and other limitations governed by climatic conditions, Qatar can’t afford to neglect the food waste problem because it can’t ignore its food security issues either.
Last year, the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) noted that more than half of the municipal waste generated in Qatar contains discarded food. One-third of the waste generated in the oil-rich GCC region consists of discarded food.
“While a lot of campaigns on saving water and electricity are in place and thankfully so, nobody has focused on food waste as a mounting concern. Ramadan is the perfect opportunity to tackle it from a social, religious and an economic point of view,” says Khalil.
In their report on this subject, Salman Zafar, founder of Ecomena, notes, “There is a chronic inclination of Muslims towards over-indulgence and lavishness in the holy month, even though the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), asked Muslims to adopt moderation in all walks of life. Socio-cultural attitudes and lavish lifestyles also play a major role in more food waste generation in Ramadan in almost all Muslim countries.”
This approach could easily be turned around, feels Khalil. “During Ramadan, Muslims strongly connect with their spiritual sides. So we must utilise the opportunity that Ramadan provides us, to generate awareness. Religious leaders, who talk about how we should fast and observe this holy month, must also teach people on minimising food waste and to cook food that they know will be consumed. If the government joins hands, then such a measure can substantially lower food waste.”
A top Doha hotel that Ecomena is working with has taken Ramadan as a starting point for testing their food waste programme, which will continue long after. “Much of their plan works on training the internal staff and it’s a wonderful programme that has achieved near-zero waste,” Khalil says.
Having to serve around 500-600 guests on a daily basis, five star hotels inadvertently, end up wasting a lot of food as they replenish their buffet section five to six times so as to appear well-stocked on all dishes.
“While some hotels we met said that they have to host Iftars and Suhoors with lavish spreads because they must maintain their standards, some like Radisson Blue have taken Suhoors off and stuck to only Iftars.”
That said, people’s spoilt food habits need to change as well. Recalling what he saw at the airport lounge earlier this week, Khalil is worried for the new generation. “I saw kids tanking up their plates with food and beverages and simply waste more than half of it. Most kids today aren’t taught to take only what they will consume. Education, too, has to play a bigger role in teaching this,” he says, “While recycling programmes are being held in schools, we need to have a grand scale initiative on this in Qatar.”
The downside of ambitious anti-food waste PR campaigns taken up by corporates is that they fizzle out within months, Khalil feels. “We have to accept that the change in society will take time. Therefore, we need to have a sustainable initiative.”
For now though, Sheikh Eid Charity Association and Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah for Humanitarian Services are doing a fine job of gathering leftovers from big buffets during Ramadan and repacking and distributing them to low-income workers and families as Suhoor meals. Sheikh Eid Charity Association, for instance, distributes a minimum of 1,000 food packets every night during Ramadan.
As for Khalil, he follows a mini recycling programme of his own. Separating waste at his residence into food, plastic, glass and metal sections, he drives down to the industrial area and disposes them off in a recycling plant once every three weeks. “I see it as a responsibility issue and that’s why I also take my kids along,” says Khalil, “They learn about recycling in school. So they must see it happen back home as well.”
The fact that few in Qatar would be able to take such interest in ridding their trash is what makes the need for the authorities to step in to check waste segregation and address the issue of recycling.
Currently, Qatar recycles less than 10 per cent of its waste. However, according to the Qatar Green Building Council, more than half the municipal solid waste generated in Qatar is compostable, including leftover food.
With no real process in place for disposing of waste in sustainable ways, Khalil believes an integrated system that begins with giving people access to dispose of the waste is the need of the hour.
“Qatar has a growing expat community which, too, would know how to deal with their waste, if the system is in place. If you give people the option, they will recycle. Kids will grow, and things will change — and of that, I am certain.”