South Korea is turning coffee grounds into construction materials, while Japan is transforming pineapple leaves into plant-based leather. These are just two of the small schemes being used in East Asia to tackle a big problem: food waste.
Culture plays a massive part in attitudes to food waste. According to the study, Cultural Insights and Policy Challenges: A thematic analysis of food saving campaigns in East Asia (Kufei Wang, Mangirdas Morkinas and Jinzhao Wei), the rich cultural traditions underlying East Asian societies affect the perception of food when it comes to frugality and respect.
“In China, the Clean Your Plate campaign rides on the back of traditional respect for food, a deeply held cultural value. On the other hand it wrestles with other deeply held cultural norms that equate abundant food with hospitality and generosity.”
In fact, the research says all four countries it studied (China, Japan, Mongolia and South Korea) face their own challenges.
In Japan, they have Mottainai which is rooted in Buddhist and Shinto traditions and is a concept that respects the value of resources such as food. However holding onto these values is threatened, according to the study, by younger generations not keeping up with traditions.
South Korea has a Pay as You Throw (PAYT) scheme which plays into the country’s love of collectivism and promotes community and responsibility. The study says PAYT is the embodiment of how economic and environmental goals can be aligned. However, there are limitations to the scheme because some people may be tempted to hide their waste to avoid paying fees.
Mongolia is at an earlier stage in its food waste reduction journey than the other countries in the region. Traditionally, food has been viewed as a commodity that’s too valuable to waste. However, urbanisation with more and more Mongolians moving from the countryside into Ulaanbaatar, means access to - and waste of - processed food is more prevalent. Awareness campaigns about food waste are emerging including Ulaanbaatar’s own Community Food Waste Recycling project.
So in the face of challenges sprouting from different cultures causing pushbacks to food waste efforts, what are Asian markets doing to beat the odds and move towards nationwide food waste reduction?
China’s proactive policies
At a restaurant in Tianjin’s Xiqing District in China, signs reading “Save Food” can be seen. It sounds counter intuitive – telling customers at a food business to eat less – but it’s all part of China’s legal framework to tackle food waste.
Under the country’s anti-food waste law, catering service providers are required to remind customers to avoid excessive ordering and can charge a disposal fee for large amounts of leftovers.
The manager of the aforementioned restaurant, Guo Ke, says the nationwide “Clear Your Plate” campaign has led to real changes in diners’ behaviours. He follows a purchase-on-demand model to help prevent over stocking and his menu includes smaller portion sizes to “help customers order more reasonably”.
In Shanghai, the “Clear Your Plate” campaign is believed to have helped cut kitchen waste in half.
Other policies to help counter food waste in China include a food security law, which promotes grain conservation; a credit rating evaluation standard for the restaurant industry and general principles for food waste reduction management in catering services.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, food banks have been piloted. And in Tianjin, drones are being used to manage rice fields more efficiently, leading to less grain being wasted during production. You can’t say the country is not trying.
Japan’s tremendous food waste goals
Japan’s Consumer Affairs’ Agency says food loss and waste (edible portions) in the country stood at 9.8m tons in 2000, of which 5.47m tons came from businesses and the remainder (4.3m tons) from households. By the end of 2030 the country aims to get this total down to less than half (4.35m tons) with businesses and households responsible for half of this wastage each. According to the Agency’s latest figures, food loss and waste (FLW) was down to 4.6m tons by the end of 2023.
Japan’s basic policy for promoting food loss and waste (FLW), has been for national and local governments to work together to raise awareness among consumers and inspire behaviour change. Messages such as ‘don’t buy too much’ and ‘don’t make too much’ are delivered via various mediums.
And to further hammer home the food waste problem in the country, the Consumer Affairs Agency has estimated and published economic losses and greenhouse gas emissions based on the 2023 figures.
Regarding the 4.64 million tons, the total economic loss due to FLW is estimated to amount to 4 trillion yen and the total greenhouse gas emissions due to FLW are 10.5 million t-CO2.
The agency says that when these estimated values are converted into per capita figures, the economic loss is 31,814 yen/person/year and greenhouse gas emissions are 84 kg-CO2/person/year.
The Japanese Act on Promotion of Food Loss and Waste Reduction came into effect in October 2019. Under the Act, reducing FLW is promoted during the month of October while October 30 is deemed Food Loss and Waste Reduction Day.
On that day, the Consumer Affairs Agency holds a National Convention on Reducing Food Loss and Waste in cooperation with the National Deliciously ‘Tabekiri (no leftovers)’ Movement Committee, which is a national network of local government which works with national government departments. During the day, there is an event to rewards businesses and organisations that have conducted ‘outstanding’ FLW initiatives. In addition, at last year’s event, there was an “Aim for Zero Food Loss’ poetry contest to get consumers involved.
The Agency says that through such initiatives people are gradually gaining awareness and changing their behaviour.
Messaging to consumers include tips on shopping efficiently, how to stop wasting food at home and practising temae-dori (selecting items from the front of the shelf), eating all the food up when dining out, or taking leftovers home. In one region, Fukuoka, the local government is distributing takeout containers to restaurants to encourage their diners to take uneaten food home rather than waste it.
There have also been food drive initiatives where surplus household food is taken to schools and workplaces for bulk donation to food banks and other organisations.
And all of this is measurable as Japan is one of the few countries that carries out impact assessments of FLW policies. A household survey is conducted on an annual basis to evaluate social impacts including consumer awareness and behavioural change on FLW.
At a recent gathering in Japan, held on the UN’s International Day of Zero Waste 2026 (March 30), Swissnex, in collaboration with UNEP-IETC, an interactive workshop for young people entitled Less Waste, More Life took place.
During the event, B2B start-up Peel Lab presented the company’s work transforming discarded pineapple leaves into plant-based leather.
Peel Lab founder Jim Huang says that by upcycling agricultural waste into products such as bags, school backpacks, sports goods and furniture, his company aims to reduce waste, lower emissions, and provide an alternative to animal leather.
Meanwhile, the second largest convenience store chain in Japan has a novel way of trying to limit food waste.
FamilyMart uses ‘namidame’ stickers on food that’s nearing its expiration date. Namidame translates into ‘teary eyed’ and the stickers ask shoppers to rescue the food before it’s thrown away.
The scheme started as a trial back in 2024 and is now running nationwide, with the sticker designs available for other retailers to download free from FamilyMart’s official sustainability website.
The c-store chain estimates the stickers could help cut food waste by around 3,000 tons a year; in Tokyo, shops that have used the stickers report they have already reduced waste by about 5%.
South Korea’s success story
According to the Frost and Sullivan Institute, a non-profit that’s devoted to using business practices to address global priorities, South Korea has gone from ‘crisis to circular success’.
In the 1990s, the country had a huge food waste problem. But the government was quick to introduce initiatives to address this. In 1995, a volume-based waste fee system was introduced, which charged households based on the volume of waste they generated using special designated bags.
In 2005, sending food waste to landfill was banned and in 2013 the compulsory use of biodegradable food waste bags was implemented alongside a pay-as-you-throw model which used RFID-equipped smart bins for “precise tracking and fair billing”.
The price for throwing away food is small but the penalties for not adhering to the rules are high. Manufacturers can be imprisoned or fined up to $22,500 (US) while households can be fined up to $7,500 (US).
Three years ago South Korea replaced “sell-by” dates with “use-by” dates to help reduce confusion over whether food was still edible after a certain date
Earlier this year, households in Seoul with RFID smart bins were encouraged to reduce their food waste further in return for incentives. Those taking part – the smart bins are mostly in apartment blocks – had to reduce their food waste by at least 10-30% year-on-year.
Participants could earn 2,000 to 5,000 ‘eco mileage’ points depending on how much their reduction was. The points could be redeemed against tax bills, apartment management fees or exchanged for gift cards.
Meanwhile, a focus on the circular economy means processing centres turn waste into valuable products such as biofuels and animal feed. And a team from Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) has converted coffee waste into insulation material for buildings.
Earlier in June, South Korea also launched the National Climate Action Campaign which included Korea’s ‘10 Commitments of Climate Citizens’. Number nine on the list, is ‘We prepare only what we need and reduce food waste’.
Singapore going above and beyond
While other nations are trying to meet lower waste targets, Singapore is keen to transform into a Zero Waste Nation. Its Zero Waste Nation Master Plan wants to achieve an overall recycling rate of 70% across all waste streams and a recycling rate of 30% for domestic waste by 2030.
And while donating unused food to good causes sounds like a great idea, there can be problems, which is why in 2024, Singapore adopted the Good Samaritan Food Donation Bill. This provides protection to food donors from any criminal and civil liability arising from the consumption of their donated food as long as they comply with four conditions.
All of this illustrates that while culture can be hard to counter, done thoughtfully and sensibly people can gently be nudged into new behaviours.
