Waste audit in umt campus : generation and management of waste in cafeteria and food kiosk

Waste Management problem became the most challenging issues with the increasing of global population. Universities as higher educational institution should create knowledge, take a lead on environmental protection and sustainability practices for promoting public awareness on adapting the concept of sustainability for a better quality of living as well as integrate sustainability in their educational and research programs. In the aspect of solid waste management, solid waste audit need to be conducted for the determination of the total amount of waste generation, the current practise of waste management and waste characterization hence specific improvement can be identified and implemented. Cafeterias have been known to generate multiple waste such as biodegradable waste, recyclable waste and non-recyclable waste. Therefore this study was conducted to determine the generation, characterization and current management practices of waste produced within cafeterias and food kioks currently operating within Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). The study involves distribution of questionnaires to 370 respondents, representative numbers based on UMT population of UMT that has reached 10900 and characterization of solid waste produced by the respected cafeterias and food kiosks for the duration of two weeks. The results found that the total generation of solid waste was 1753kg with average 125kg generation per day. Waste classification were 59% (food waste), 21 % (papers), 13% (plastics), 4 % (tin/aluminium), 1.3% (polystyrene), 1.2%Â (Glass) and 0.02% (Others). Estimation of the average waste generation was determined through weighted process using scale machine. The weighted waste were segregated according to their type and categories. The survey conducted found that majority of respondent have knowledge about solid waste management (>80%) but still lack of awareness towards solid waste management in cafeteria and food kiosk whether simply by recycling and separating. The survey also suggests that UMT community to bring their own containers for take away and to participate more in solid waste awareness programme. The high proportion of organic waste more than 60% exceeding the typical 40% national generation indicated a strong urge to place organic waste compost bin in cafeteria so that the highly generated organic waste can be utilized and converted into compost whilst reduce waste disposal cost.Â