Five malls in Singapore — Causeway Point, Waterway Point, Northpoint City, Century Square and Tampines 1 — will soon be able to reduce the amount of food waste produced through an on-site food waste valorisation system.

These malls are under Frasers Property Singapore, which signed a partnership with Life Lab Resources (LLR), a local food security solutions provider, on Jan. 15, 2024.

How does it work?

The on-site food waste treatment plant, developed by Green Eco Technologies and called WasteMaster, converts food waste into nutrient-rich substrates using reactive oxygen technology, according to a press release by Frasers Property.

The substrates will be treated and converted into microbial proteins at a new bio-refinery plant which will be set up in the first quarter of 2024.

These microbial proteins can then be supplied to feed formulation companies and converted into aquaculture feed.

The WasteMaster system is fully automated and the waste conversion process takes less than 24 hours.

For every 400kg of food waste, the WasteMaster system is able to produce 100kg of odour-free substrates.

Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling, who witnessed the signing ceremony, said in her speech that food waste accounted for about 11 per cent of total waste generated in Singapore in 2022.

According to the National Environment Agency, only 18 per cent of food waste in 2022 was recycled.

This food waste valorisation programme reduces the amount of food waste that gets incinerated and fills up Singapore's landfills. It also reduces the amount of resources needed for the production of aquaculture feed.

Pilot at Causeway Point

A seven-month pilot of the system was previously conducted at Causeway Point from January to July last year.

F&B tenants like Bali Thai, Food Republic, Ichiban Boshi and FairPrice Finest took part in the trial.

More tenants such as Dian Xiao Er, Kuriya Japanese Market, PastaMania, Shabu Sai and Tokyo Shoduko have since joined the programme, and over 52 tonnes of food waste were collected in 2023.

The food waste valorisation programme is expected to reduce the amount of food waste produced at the five malls by up to 2,200 tonnes, and save up to 660 tonnes of carbon emissions, Frasers Property said.

The programme has the potential to be expanded to other Frasers Property malls in 2025.

Top photo from Frasers Property and Aniq Uqasha / Google Maps