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Those responsible for food wastage included food manufacturing and catering industries and hotels. Every day last year, each person in Singapore wasted an equivalent of one packet of economy rice or nasi padang. All this added up to an astounding record of 796,000 tonnes - the weight of about 1,420 fully loaded Airbus A-380s - of food waste, according to National Environment Agency statistics released this month. This marks a steep 13.2 per cent rise from the 703,200 tonnes dumped in 2012, and is the sharpest spike in at least six years. Before last year, food waste had typically gone up between 1.6 and 6.7 per cent year on year since 2007. "It's an extremely steep rise and it's rather disturbing that there is a distinct lack of awareness and nonchalance to food security issues," said Singapore Environment Council chief executive Jose Raymond yesterday. The amount of food waste, which includes cooked food and expired packaged products, last year is a 42.4 per cent leap from the 2007 figure, far outpacing the 17.7 per cent growth in national population. Raymond blamed rising consumer affluence, a growing food industry that is "constantly bringing new delicacies to the table", and a lack of public awareness on food waste. An affluent society has resulted in habits such as "not finishing up our food (because) the taste is not up to par or the inclination to load up our plates when in front of a buffet line", said Food and Beverage Managers' Association (FBMA) president Cheong Hai Poh. He revealed that FBMA has already been studying food practices in Europe. The problem has also permeated every link in the supply chain, said Minister of State for National Development Maliki Osman in Parliament last week. Among those culpable included food manufacturing and catering industries, food and beverage outlets as well as hotels. The latest statistic has surprised Restaurant Association of Singapore president Andrew Tjioe, who is also the executive chairman of Tung Lok Group. "I have seen restaurants with waiters who keep customers from over-ordering," he said. "People also dabao (take away) leftovers, it is not shameful. I do so even if I have only a little bit of food left." He believes catered occasions, such as buffets and banquets, were the prime wasters. People also tend to cater more food than required, said Tjioe. "But caterers wouldn't dare to cut down in case the demand is there and food is not enough." He suggested reducing Chinese banquet courses, which can have as many as nine dishes, or to cut the size of portions. Open-concept kitchens at restaurants such as Carousel at Royal Plaza on Scotts also help chefs gauge how much food is still available to diners, said its general manager Patrick Fiat. Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association president Thomas Pek, who said he will raise the problem at an association meeting later this month, urged more companies to work with charities in giving away food that is nearing its expiry date. He also suggested that more supermarkets and bakeries could mark down prices of their fresh produce near the end of the day. Despite the massive amount of food being disposed, recycling remains low. Last year, only about 13 per cent of the total was recycled, up 1 per cent from the previous year. This comprises mainly clean food waste such as spent grains from beer brewing and bread waste, which are converted to animal feed. Said Raymond: "With the amount of food waste being generated, it is probably timely for Singapore to revisit the possibility of food waste recycling." Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/more-food-going-waste-20140319-0

Wasted never invent one foldable bike... at 2.2k... maybe bikes have COE now also... http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/...704-357117.html RELATED STORIES Are NParks' $2,200 bikes too costly? Mr Khaw wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that he had asked NParks for the rationale for the purchase. He said NParks cited staff productivity as the main reason for the purchase: "Providing staff with bikes was thought to be a simple and effective way to raise staff productivity as it enables the officer to cover more ground and do more inspections within the same time." NParks officers in the Park Connector Division cover between 30 to 40km in their daily rounds. Mr Khaw added that a foldable bicycle was chosen because such bicycles "would eliminate the need for an office van to transport the bikes and the staff to the areas of their daily rounds". The NParks staff would also be able to carry them onto buses and trains where necessary. He also said that Brompton was picked because only one vendor responded to the tender with a bid price lower than the listed retail price of the same bicycle. While a Brompton bike costs more than foldable bicycles with similar specifications, Mr Khaw said cyclists told him the bike was durable and would require less maintenance after heavy usage. He concluded: "It looks like NParks has bought the right equipment. However, it also looks like NParks might have gotten a better deal if there was greater participation in this quotation." According to the Lianhe Zaobao report where the NParks purchase was first reported, a police officer's bicycle costs about $1,000 while Singapore Post's postmen use bicycles which cost about $500.

this will teach motorbike a proper road lesson , never overtake a lane changing car from behind http://motoring.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/...4-297704/2.html

My mum bought a box of 30 mandarin oranges, then later 2 relatives gave us 2 more boxes of 12 each, total 30+12+12=54. Cannot finish. Just now wanted to eat, found some already dried up on the inside and hardened..... THROW! My boss bought 20 over boxes, gave 2 oranges to each employee. Most of the oranges ended up as CNY decorations... put all over the tables, pantry, printer room, on top of cubicle partitions... all over the place. As not refrigerated, some started to turn mouldy... THROW! And this is only 1 household and 1 office. How about the hundreds of thousands of other households and offices in SG and millions all over the world? I wonder how many mandarin oranges are wasted every CNY? What a waste!

On Saturday, I ordered a mattress from M*** Mattress and was informed that delivery of the mattress would be on Wednesday 15th Aug. i.e. today between 2 and 5 pm. So, I made arrangement to be home this afternoon to receive the mattress. Knowing the standard of aftersales service in SGP, I wasn't really surprised to get a call just before 12pm today from M*** Mattress that the delivery couldn't be made due to a "technical difficulty". KNN, half a day wasted probably due to someone's incompetence...... I have decided not to patronise M*** Mattress again in future.