This is humorous and slightly dark story if you think of it. In the face of shrinking landfill space, Hong Kong restaurants have begun to put up signs warning customers they may have to pay for the food that they leave on their plate. The cost? $0.64 per ounce.

Other solutions to the food waste problem include a giant mechanical “stomach” in the basement below one of the malls, used to “digest” the food. More along the permaculture line, they’re also beginning to use the food waste as feed for nutritious compost:

The Hong Kong government is setting up an experimental composter that will transform four tons of food waste a day into soil conditioner, encouraging hotels and catering firms eager to burnish their “green” image to truck some of their waste up to the recycling center in Kowloon.

“In the longer term we’ll need hundreds of this kind of facility,” predicts Lui.

Considering the ever increasing food portion sizes in the US (Canada too), I don’t think that you’ll see this come to a TGIFriday’s near you any time soon. “Big” is still in.

Food waste continues to be a big problem. A high percent of a household’s trash is food waste, up to 33%. Perhaps we should take a lesson from these Hong Kong eateries. Reduce our portion sizes to make sure we “clean our plate”, don’t over-shop at the grocery store, charge your kids for the food they leave on their plate - Ahem! I mean get a giant mechanical digester, Uggh! I mean - start composting!

Source: Christian Science Monitor via Raw Story