With global population predicted at 10 billion people by 2050, it is but prudent for all countries of the world to make efficient use of their finite resources to reduce wastage and pollution.
This is what the UN Food and Agriculture Organization is urging the peoples of the planet to do right now, before everything is too late, as a 10 billion projected population would be an immense challenge to meet the rapidly growing demand for food and non-food agricultural products, which would rise by at least 56 percent by 2050.
FAO Director General Qu Dongyu told a high level event at the UN General Assembly commemorating the first International Day of Zero Waste “to use existing biological resources more efficiently and waste less, instead of relying on finite fossil-based resources.”
A FAO video showing a scene of food waste on the street near the Kalimati Vegetable Market in Kathmandu, Nepal, 31 July 2017 was shown in that meet to highlight the urgency of reducing wastes.
“To meet this extra demand for agricultural outputs, including food, fiber, fuel and fodder, in an equitable and sustainable way… We must produce and consume in a more sustainable and healthier manner, with fewer inputs,” says Qu.
Waste and residues along agri-food systems can be turned into beneficial products such as biomaterials, biochemicals, biopharmaceuticals, and bioenergy. In the bio-economy, there is no such thing as waste,” Qu said.
These losses occur while over 800 million people are undernourished and almost 3.1 billion cannot afford a healthy diet.
The FAO chief warned the 193 members of the UN General Assembly that wasting food and non-food agricultural products, as well as inputs like plastics, puts unnecessary pressure on the environment.
“It essentially means that we have wasted land and water resources, we have created pollution and we have emitted greenhouse gases with no purpose,” he said.
In the Philippines, the month of January has been declared as National Zero Waste month by the late President Pnoy Aquino reuse, recycle and
“Zero Waste” is a campaign to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices towards sustainable systems in an ethical, economical, and efficient way, and to ensure that wastes become valuable for other uses. This involves systematically designing and managing products and processes to lessen the volume of waste produced, to eliminate toxicity in resulting waste, and to conserve and recover resources.
As a people, we must exert effort to sort our garbage, reuse and recycle what can still be used or given to others for their use so we spare our landfills of unnecessary wastes. This is to ensure that future generations will have resources they can also use.