It means avoiding waste generation while having your meals, be it your food leftovers or disposable packaging items.

Do you know that food waste generated in Malaysia amounts to 17,000 tonnes or 45% of total domestic waste (SW Corp, 2021)? To visualize this figure, we could fill 7 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

Therefore, we encourage everyone to start attempting Waste-Free Lunch! You could use reusable bottles, containers and cutleries, cloth napkins, and most important of all, avoid food waste.

Here are snippets of students from SMK Naning, SJKT Merlimau, and SMK Tun Mutahir from Melaka who attempted Waste-Free Lunch under the MPMA-Dow School Environmental Challenge 2021. With this practice, we can help reduce greenhouse gases emission not only from landfills but also lower the energy and natural resources expended in processing, transporting, storing, and cooking of your meals.