TOPIC 3: WHY SDG IS IMPORTANT TO THE COMMUNITY?

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TOPIC 3: WHY SDG IS IMPORTANT TO THE COMMUNITY? 

    There are many reasons why Sustainable Development Goal is vital to the community. One of the reasons is to avoid food waste in our daily lives. The issue of food waste in my neighbourhood is very close to us. Based on the data, Malaysians produce 15000 tonnes of food waste daily. They were spending about RM900 a month on food and throwing away RM 225 of food a month. They can spend their money buying more than seven 10kg bags of rice, more than 132 litres of RON9 5 petrol and more than Unifi 30Mbps plan RM199/mth. 

   According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about one-third of the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted annually, which amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes. It significantly impacts greenhouse gas emissions, natural resources, food security, and livelihoods. In this article, you will learn how food waste management research and data can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a set of 17 global objectives to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all by 2030.

Based on the situation, this issue is related to the twelve goals in Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, which is vital to sustaining the livelihoods of current and future generations. Unsustainable consumption and production patterns are the root causes of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. These crises, and related environmental degradation, threaten human well-being and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. Governments and all citizens should work together to improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and pollution, and shape a new circular economy. You can contribute to the SDGs, such as Zero Hunger, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, and Partnerships for the Goals by reducing food waste. For instance, by preventing food loss and destruction, you can increase food availability for those in need, especially in developing countries. 

What is a Circular Economy?

United Nations Environment Programme specifies that a circular economy is one of the current sustainable economic models, in which products and materials are designed in such a way that they can be reused, remanufactured, recycled or recovered and thus maintained in the economy for as long as possible, along with the resources of which they are made. The generation of waste, especially hazardous waste, is avoided or minimized, and greenhouse gas emissions are prevented or reduced.

The circular economy is oriented to nature as its role model. The circular economy concept aims to keep raw materials in a closed loop. In this way, resources are maximally used, the need for new ones is reduced, waste is avoided, and the life cycle of products is increased. In short, today's destruction becomes tomorrow's raw material - the same as in nature. In this way, the circular economy differs from the current economic system, i.e. the linear system, in which products are manufactured, used and disposed of.

Therefore, we must avoid waste by using recyclable items and less energy consumption. We can also improve resource recovery using the same packaging and support recycle industry. In addition, we should better manage essential materials and improve waste information to implement a circular economy successfully.

Moreover, we need to support goal 12 of sustainable development by taking some actions to make this goal can achieve its target and indicators. For instance, we can recycle and reuse wherever possible and use shopping lists and buy what we need to avoid waste. Other than that, we also can bike, walk or take public transport to go somewhere. We should join a pressure group to demand action on this issue at www.globalcitizan.org and share the facts with family and friends to encourage activity.