Apps Turning Restaurant Leftovers Into Cheap Meals Take Off in Asia
With a tantalizing array of satay chicken, wok-fried mud crab and chilled tiger prawns, the dinner buffet at Singapore's Grand Hyatt hotel typically sets diners back about $70. Those on a tighter budget and with an eye on sustainability can fill a box for a 10th of that price.
Across Asia, tech startups are taking food otherwise destined for landfill and providing discounted meals through mobile phone apps.
About a third of food is lost or wasted every year globally, and the mountains of waste are estimated to cause 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, the United Nations says. The Asia-Pacific region is among the worst in the world for food waste, accounting for more than half of food squandered globally.
“A common mantra that I have is that being sustainable should be attainable,” said Preston Wong, chief executive officer and co-founder of treatsure, which collaborates with chains including the Hyatt, Accor Group and the Singapore Marriott Tang Plaza Hotel to allow app users to pick out and collect a “buffet-in-a-box” of food that would otherwise be thrown out. “I think technology can bridge that gap,” he said.
With more than 30,000 users, treatsure has saved an estimated 30 metric tons of food from going to waste since it launched in 2017, with users typically having to wait until the end of service before they can collect their food, according to Wong. Still, that's a far cry from the 817,000 tons of food waste in Singapore in 2021, a 23% increase from the year prior. Authorities say the city state's only landfill, Semakau, is expected to meet Singapore's solid waste disposal needs up to 2035 and beyond.
Hong Kong faces similar problems. It has already filled up 13 landfills, and about 3,300 tons of food
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