A 'Chuckaway' Society
O children of Adam! Wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for God loveth not the wasters. (VII: 31)
That's a verse from the Holy Quran.
Now check this. In this country of about 850,000 people, on an average about 918,000 kgs of food is found in garbage cans every single day.
How we came about this figure is simple math. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture says the per capita garbage generation in Qatar is up to 2kg daily, of which 54% is foodstuff.
That's 1.08 kgs of food thrown away per day per person. Multiply that by the population and about 918,000 kgs of food is what you'll find in the dustbins of the 11400sq km small country.
Lets compare the figures with the US, which has a population of 295mn, over 295 times more than that of Qatar. The entire per capita garbage generation a day in the States - 1kg - is less than the amount of just the food we throw away here.
And this is not all.
Almost every month, the Doha Municipality sends out press releases, on how much foodstuff - "expired or damaged" - collected from food suppliers, supermarkets or meat shops is destroyed.
In April this year, it was a whopping 788 tonnes that was buried in the Salwa industrial area landfill.
"788 tonnes is a lot," says Soad al-Hamad of the Qatar Red Crescent, a voluntary organisation, which provides food to about "5000 under-privileged" people, including "a few Qataris", in the country.
Indeed, Qatar is a very rich country, and even the poorest of people may own cars. But is that reason enough to throw away such huge quantities of food when just a sea away towards the west, in Africa, millions are dying slow deaths of starvation?
Al-Hamad points out there is no system of a food bank in Qatar whereby foodstuff, which even though expired and cannot be sold but is perfectly edible, can be collected, tested and then distributed.
Ali Mohamad Shaikhan, assistant director of the municipality's food control section, says they "could never think of supplying expired food items to even poor people."
"The food has to be the best, which even the poor people have the right to. Our main objective is the safety of the people. We always destroy expired and damaged food items," Shaikhan says.
The Doha Municipality has 15 meat inspectors and 28 other officers, who "regularly visit" the supermarkets, groceries and butcher, in all 4500 shops under their jurisdiction, looking out for any damaged or expired items.
"Almost everyday the municipality officers come for checking," says Mahmoud Abd el Bary, manager of Q-mart, a supermarket at The Mall, adding, "there is hardly any wastage from our side."
He passes the buck onto the bigger supermarkets, saying, "That's where the bulk of the wastage originates."
But Lulu Hypermarket's Mohamed Bashir denies this. "There is very little wastage from our side," he says, passing the blame onto food suppliers.
"Before an item is about to be expired, we send it back to the supplier," Bashir says. "Most of the wastage happens from suppliers."
However, even suppliers refuse to accept responsibility. Ahmad al-Khiyami of Gulf Centre for Foodstuff too says the wastage from their side is "very little" and refuses to show figures as to how much is actually "very little."
Most of the suppliers and supermarkets deny there is any wastage at all since they don't want their shareholders to know all their products aren't being sold.
But their reluctance to admit of wastage doesn't take away anything from the facts that come in the form of figures from the municipality every month.
"The reason is the competition among supermarkets," says Doha Municipality's Shaikhan. "To beat their competitors they buy too much, and all of those items end up getting expired."
The quantity of food destroyed is obviously not thought of as an issue since Shaikhan casually shrugs, "It's normal - the collection of so many tonnes of food every month."
Noushad, a vegetable vendor at the colossal Salwa vegetable market, which throngs with customers seeking to buy in bulk, says: "Huge amounts of vegetables are thrown away at the end of the day (the market is open from 5.30am to 11am)."
"What to do," Noushad asks. "They get damamged if not sold. In this heat vegetables can't last more than a day."
"Sometimes the municipality comes and takes them away, or sometimes we just chuck the leftovers ourselves in the nearby bins."
Some of the food items like fresh vegetables are sent to the Abu Hamour government factory for composting, says Shaikhan. Though figures, as to how much, are "unavailable."
The rest of the foodstuff, accumulating to several hundred tonnes every month, is buried.
T.P. Bandhopadhyay of the Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR) says, "People in Qatar waste a lot of food. We have to do a lot of work to change the wasting habits."
He adds the government is "doing its job of organizing awareness programs in the form of campaigns and advertisements," but it would take time before the results of the efforts become visible.
It isn't about whether they are Qataris, Westerners, or Indians, "there is wastage from everywhere, everyone in Qatar," Bandhopadhyay says.
At a small lunch get together recently, two full plates of rice, two plates of chicken and several other dishes were chucked away in the bin.
Sure, they cribbed, "Too much food being wasted," while sliding the food from the plate into the bin.
Why not keep it in the huge fridge that cost them QR 750 and reuse it for dinner?
"No," answers the host. "This is the tiffin service. There will be more coming for the night."
"Everyday," he says, "as much food is thrown away."
It's not his fault, he says. "The restaurants serve so much that you just can't eat the entire thing. How much can one man eat?"
An employee of the Prestige Restaurant near Almana Towers says the amount of food wasted everyday at the eatery hinted at a "chuckaway society."
"If we give less, they have a problem. If we give more, they waste," the employee says. "People's habit here is such they like to see a huge pile of food in front of them whether they eat it or not."
"Almost half of the total food we prepare during the day goes into the dustbins," he says.
Nisha Varman, 27, a business executive at the Doha International Airport, feels the mindset of "buying more for cheaper" with the economic factor in mind serves no purpose.
Initially, she too, like several others in this country, bought foodstuff in bulk, but soon realised most of it was going waste. "It was all anyway ending up in the bins," says Varman, a single Indian woman, who "prefers to cook her own food" rather than eat out.
"Now, I go out grocery shopping everyday and buy lesser quantity," she says. "It really feels terrible chucking away food."
But considering the figures, clearly, there are few in this country that think like Varman.
Too much money, right? So what if some food is wasted? We'll get some more a few hours later.
Not that we can see a five-year-old kid, who hasn't eaten one bite since the last five days, shivering with fever, lying on his mother's lap, dying a slow death sans even the energy to look up to his weeping mother and say, "I'm hungry."
Ameen!
That's a verse from the Holy Quran.
Now check this. In this country of about 850,000 people, on an average about 918,000 kgs of food is found in garbage cans every single day.
How we came about this figure is simple math. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture says the per capita garbage generation in Qatar is up to 2kg daily, of which 54% is foodstuff.
That's 1.08 kgs of food thrown away per day per person. Multiply that by the population and about 918,000 kgs of food is what you'll find in the dustbins of the 11400sq km small country.
Lets compare the figures with the US, which has a population of 295mn, over 295 times more than that of Qatar. The entire per capita garbage generation a day in the States - 1kg - is less than the amount of just the food we throw away here.
And this is not all.
Almost every month, the Doha Municipality sends out press releases, on how much foodstuff - "expired or damaged" - collected from food suppliers, supermarkets or meat shops is destroyed.
In April this year, it was a whopping 788 tonnes that was buried in the Salwa industrial area landfill.
"788 tonnes is a lot," says Soad al-Hamad of the Qatar Red Crescent, a voluntary organisation, which provides food to about "5000 under-privileged" people, including "a few Qataris", in the country.
Indeed, Qatar is a very rich country, and even the poorest of people may own cars. But is that reason enough to throw away such huge quantities of food when just a sea away towards the west, in Africa, millions are dying slow deaths of starvation?
Al-Hamad points out there is no system of a food bank in Qatar whereby foodstuff, which even though expired and cannot be sold but is perfectly edible, can be collected, tested and then distributed.
Ali Mohamad Shaikhan, assistant director of the municipality's food control section, says they "could never think of supplying expired food items to even poor people."
"The food has to be the best, which even the poor people have the right to. Our main objective is the safety of the people. We always destroy expired and damaged food items," Shaikhan says.
The Doha Municipality has 15 meat inspectors and 28 other officers, who "regularly visit" the supermarkets, groceries and butcher, in all 4500 shops under their jurisdiction, looking out for any damaged or expired items.
"Almost everyday the municipality officers come for checking," says Mahmoud Abd el Bary, manager of Q-mart, a supermarket at The Mall, adding, "there is hardly any wastage from our side."
He passes the buck onto the bigger supermarkets, saying, "That's where the bulk of the wastage originates."
But Lulu Hypermarket's Mohamed Bashir denies this. "There is very little wastage from our side," he says, passing the blame onto food suppliers.
"Before an item is about to be expired, we send it back to the supplier," Bashir says. "Most of the wastage happens from suppliers."
However, even suppliers refuse to accept responsibility. Ahmad al-Khiyami of Gulf Centre for Foodstuff too says the wastage from their side is "very little" and refuses to show figures as to how much is actually "very little."
Most of the suppliers and supermarkets deny there is any wastage at all since they don't want their shareholders to know all their products aren't being sold.
But their reluctance to admit of wastage doesn't take away anything from the facts that come in the form of figures from the municipality every month.
"The reason is the competition among supermarkets," says Doha Municipality's Shaikhan. "To beat their competitors they buy too much, and all of those items end up getting expired."
The quantity of food destroyed is obviously not thought of as an issue since Shaikhan casually shrugs, "It's normal - the collection of so many tonnes of food every month."
Noushad, a vegetable vendor at the colossal Salwa vegetable market, which throngs with customers seeking to buy in bulk, says: "Huge amounts of vegetables are thrown away at the end of the day (the market is open from 5.30am to 11am)."
"What to do," Noushad asks. "They get damamged if not sold. In this heat vegetables can't last more than a day."
"Sometimes the municipality comes and takes them away, or sometimes we just chuck the leftovers ourselves in the nearby bins."
Some of the food items like fresh vegetables are sent to the Abu Hamour government factory for composting, says Shaikhan. Though figures, as to how much, are "unavailable."
The rest of the foodstuff, accumulating to several hundred tonnes every month, is buried.
T.P. Bandhopadhyay of the Supreme Council for the Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR) says, "People in Qatar waste a lot of food. We have to do a lot of work to change the wasting habits."
He adds the government is "doing its job of organizing awareness programs in the form of campaigns and advertisements," but it would take time before the results of the efforts become visible.
It isn't about whether they are Qataris, Westerners, or Indians, "there is wastage from everywhere, everyone in Qatar," Bandhopadhyay says.
At a small lunch get together recently, two full plates of rice, two plates of chicken and several other dishes were chucked away in the bin.
Sure, they cribbed, "Too much food being wasted," while sliding the food from the plate into the bin.
Why not keep it in the huge fridge that cost them QR 750 and reuse it for dinner?
"No," answers the host. "This is the tiffin service. There will be more coming for the night."
"Everyday," he says, "as much food is thrown away."
It's not his fault, he says. "The restaurants serve so much that you just can't eat the entire thing. How much can one man eat?"
An employee of the Prestige Restaurant near Almana Towers says the amount of food wasted everyday at the eatery hinted at a "chuckaway society."
"If we give less, they have a problem. If we give more, they waste," the employee says. "People's habit here is such they like to see a huge pile of food in front of them whether they eat it or not."
"Almost half of the total food we prepare during the day goes into the dustbins," he says.
Nisha Varman, 27, a business executive at the Doha International Airport, feels the mindset of "buying more for cheaper" with the economic factor in mind serves no purpose.
Initially, she too, like several others in this country, bought foodstuff in bulk, but soon realised most of it was going waste. "It was all anyway ending up in the bins," says Varman, a single Indian woman, who "prefers to cook her own food" rather than eat out.
"Now, I go out grocery shopping everyday and buy lesser quantity," she says. "It really feels terrible chucking away food."
But considering the figures, clearly, there are few in this country that think like Varman.
Too much money, right? So what if some food is wasted? We'll get some more a few hours later.
Not that we can see a five-year-old kid, who hasn't eaten one bite since the last five days, shivering with fever, lying on his mother's lap, dying a slow death sans even the energy to look up to his weeping mother and say, "I'm hungry."
Ameen!
posted by Once the Conman at 7:12 PM
1 Comments:
Let's hope the authorities will know what to do when the rubbish dump has grown to a mountain.
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