What is Jockey Club “Field So Good” Community Composting Program
About 3400 tonnes of food waste were generated every day in 2019, more than 95% food waste disposed to landfill. Food waste could cause serious problem in landfill, releasing methane gas, which is more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Hence there is an urging need for solution to tackle with these wastes problem.
Food waste composting is one of the most prominent ways to solve the problem. Composting refers to the degradation of organic matter by microorganisms under controlled conditions. The produced compost can provide valuable nutrients and organic matter to the soil, which in turn help growing healthy plants and restore the growth beneficial microorganisms in the soil. Besides, the volume of organic waste could be largely reduced by more than 50% during the decomposition process.
In the HKJC “Field So Good” Community Composting Programme which funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the team led by Prof. Chu Lee Man of The Chinese University of Hong Kong has conducted a comprehensive research to formulate the use of local industrial food waste as to produce High Quality Organic Compost. And the team has finally produced a High Quality Organic Compost, which is the first and the only certified compost produced with local food waste.
Program process
Stakeholders participating in the Programme
The Programme serves as an example of recycling and converting organic refuse into organic compose with commercial value. Through sharing the underlying technologies, it will help drive further diversification of the recycling industry.
We are liaising with farms, gardens and gardening shops to encourage them to try out the high quality organic compost which developed and produced through this Programme, with a view to promoting widespread use by the industries.
Our current targets mainly include Soybean waste, Herbal tea waste, Coffee ground, Malt waste from different factories, and we are also exploring other potential organic resources for recycling.
Community connection is a cross-generation task. We will seek in the community environmental protection leaders for tomorrow, and nurture them through immersion in the promotion events.
Donors:
Organizer:
Co-Organizer:
Working with Government, non-governmental organisations and community partners, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust is committed to improving the quality of life of the people of Hong Kong, as well as building a sustainable future for Hong Kong. Over the years, the Trust has sponsored many large-scale environmental projects, and this Programme is one of the fully funded projects.
The School of Life Sciences of the Chinese University of Hong Kong is the organiser of the Programme and responsible for the research. Led by Prof Chu Lee-man, the Programme has investigated the efficient production of high quality compost using organic refuse created by the local food factories, and assessed the benefits of organic composting to local agriculture and horticulture.
FoodCycle+ is a local registered social enterprise, working on upcycling and reuse of local organic resources in local agriculture through its innovative upcycled green products. It is responsible for the operation of compost production and community promotion for the Programme.
Hong Kong Children & Youth Services endeavours to create a favourable environment where children, youths and their family members can develop their potential and realise their goals. It is responsible for recruiting and providing training to the young people interested in promoting environmental protection, for assisting various community promotion events.
The milestones of activity
Under the team led by Prof. Chu Lee Man, CUHK, although there were problems such as typhoon disaster, social movements and Covid-19 pandemic, the program as a whole was still able to continue, and the team and partners also fully demonstrated the spirit of mutual assistance and continued to achieve the program. The various goals within, so that all stakeholders can gain.
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Research on composting of industrial and commercial organic wastes -A suitable food waste composting formula has been developed. The current food waste formula includes: herbal tea dregs, coffee dregs, beer dregs, tofu dregs and mushroom puree, all of which are generated from local industry and commerce.
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The establishment of composting workshops and planting demonstration areas -fully automated composting production system, odorless, 24-hour operation.
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Organic waste collection, compost production and farm trial use - processing more than ten tons of industrial and commercial kitchen waste every month, and will be distributed to local farms for trial starting from May 2020.
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Established a local compost brand "MixO' Plus Organic Compost" - to produce high-quality compost "MixO' Plus Organic Compost" that meets organic certification requirements, redesigned the packaging, and promoted organic compost with the image of a new product.
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Youth ambassador training and promotion work — 180 young people were invited to visit the composting plant and 4 training days were held. A total of 23 good soil youth ambassadors were trained and related promotion activities were invested.
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Planting workshops - held planting workshops in 4 schools.
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Visits and exhibitions - Six visits were held and more than 100 people were invited to visit the venue. Participated in the 2019 Eco Expo Asia and the Hong Kong North District Flower Bird Insect And Fish Show.
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Media Interview - Accepting interview photos from the Commercial Radio Hong Kong "The Way We Are" program.