Peels Utopia

Part 1: Drawing key lessons

• A good amount of research around food wastage and the problems causing these food wastages

• Made an effort to conceptualize a good solution to a small area of the bigger problem.

• Created a prototype for the solution

Some areas the project can be improved:

• References/Citation for research should be always provided.

• A lot of time, effort and slides explaining the key challenge of food wastage. But, the actual problem and solution is totally different from the root cause and needs analysis presented.

• There is no case study on the needs analysis for the proposed “Infusion” derived from Orange peels. What are its uses? Is there a need in school for the infused solution? Could these have been converted to a pesticide (for eg) or a utensil cleaner or maybe essential oil for aromatherapy

Part 2: Exploring Possibilities

• Good amount of research done on food wastage and the different existing solutions – their pros and cons.

• Good root cause analysis data put together regarding food wastage

Some related areas students could explore:

• Food wastage is a huge problem. But, many of the existing solutions are logistically challenging and expensive.

• Students who want to continue research in this area should streamline their effort to look into a small area of the challenge and focus their project at their school and then expand it to the community/constituency to scale their project objectives.

• Education should also be a key focus in their tactics to curb food wastage. This should be explored with both food vendors, consumers and food manufacturing industries.

Part 1: Drawing key lessons

The idea of making use of wasted food for more productive purposes is good. As wastage of food cannot be completely avoided, repurposing it is a sensible approach to mitigate its negative impact.

Some areas the project can be improved:

The current presentation is a bit vague in terms of how to repurpose wasted food. I suggest the team to link this to the goal of Singapore to locally produce 30% of its food supply in the coming years. You could propose a “circular economy” or “participatory economy” for local agriculture, which leverages wasted food as feedstocks for live stocks such as pigs, or be to turned into fertilizers for vegetables. Along the way, you could incorporate some technologies like demand-supply matching to manage this process more efficiently.

Part 2: Exploring Possibilities

Some existing solutions:

https://www.towardszerowaste.gov.sg/circular-economy/

https://participatoryeconomy.org/