食材食物丟棄好浪費，剩食如何處理? 廚餘又如何利用? 2017「循環經濟全球論壇」另一關切的議題是「剩食」!
依據聯合國統計，全球將近40%食物浪費掉，其中臺灣統計2016年全臺餐飲、超商、量販店、超級市場等177家業者、共110000多間實體通路，每年因未拆封放至過期、賣相不佳遭丟棄的食品，高達3萬6000公噸，金額約38億元，相當驚人!
「剩食議題」近年來備受關注，許多國家、民間組織及企業共同為「惜食」把關，紛紛成立「食物銀行」、「剩食餐廳」，以減少食物浪費及CO2排放。針對廚餘，環保產業利用創新科技，將廚餘再利用，除了推廣有機堆肥，自然無毒農業，更將廚餘做為生質能源，生產再生能源。
我國辦理2017「循環經濟全球論壇」，邀請美國、愛沙尼亞、 紐西蘭、越南、日本、韓國、荷蘭及德國分享各國「剩食」管理處理及推動循環經濟做法，其中臺灣、日本、韓國利用物質流向追蹤申報的源頭管理制度，為食安把關，引起歐美國家的興趣，另外荷蘭、德國推動再生能源，將廚餘轉為生質能源，是亞洲國家交流的重點。荷蘭甚至由年輕人投入創業「剩食餐廳」，目標為取得米其林認證，開創新的商業模式，在在展現「剩食」商機無限，是推動循環經濟很好的選項。
民以食為天，華人社會重視飲食，臺灣更是以美食聞名世界，環保署表示，藉由2017「循環經濟全球論壇」對剰食循環經濟的案例分享與成功經驗，未來鼓勵民眾「食物減量、剩食無量」，同時參考其他國家「剩食」管理做法，引進創新科技轉型廚餘為再生能源，是推動剰食循環經濟的重要方向。
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Fighting to save leftovers: The EPA is promoting leftovers as part of a circular economy
Disposing food is such a wasteful action! How do we handle leftovers and in what ways can we use kitchen waste? One of the key issues of the 2017 Circular Economy Global Forum is “leftovers”.
According to U.N. statistics, close to 40% of food is wasted across the globe. In Taiwan 2016 statistics show that as high as 36,000 tons of food is disposed due to bad appearance, unopened and expired, at a cost of about NTD 3.8 billion annually. This comes from 177 companies in the food and beverage business, convenient stores, hypermarkets and supermarkets, accounting for 110 thousand physical stores in total. This is very remarkable!
In recent years, the “leftovers issue” has become a topic of concern, and many countries, non-governmental organizations and enterprises have strived to “cherish food” by setting up “food banks”, and “leftover restaurants” to reduce food waste and thus reduce CO2 emissions. For kitchen waste, environmental industries use innovative technology to reuse kitchen waste. In addition to promoting organic composting and innovative agriculture, they even use kitchen waste as biomass energy to produce renewable energy.
The 2017 Circular Economy Global Forum has invited speakers from the U.S.A, Estonia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Holland and Germany to share information about their “leftover” management and promotion of a circular economy. Taiwan, Japan and Korea use material flow tracking as source management systems to safeguard food safety, which has attracted attention from European and other western countries. Moreover, Holland and Germany promote renewable energy by turning kitchen waste into biomass energy and this has become a key focus for exchanges with Asian countries. In Holland, there is a new business model created by young adults who opened “leftover restaurants” and they aim to win Michelin stars. This action shows there are unlimited business opportunities in “leftovers” and it is a great option to promote a circular economy.
Food is the first necessity of people! Chinese society places an important focus on food and beverage. Taiwan is famous across the world for its delicious food. The EPA stated that it anticipates encouraging the public to “reduce the amount of food and leftovers with unlimited opportunity” through sharing successful cases of leftovers in a circular economy at the 2017 Circular Economy Global Forum. Meanwhile, the EPA is referring to the other countries for “leftovers” management to introduce innovative technology that turns kitchen waste into renewable energy, which is an important direction to promote leftovers in a circular economy.