Photo by Oleg MagnifromPexels
By Steven Setiawan
Since February 2020, the world has struggled to control COVID – 19 that has spread through all continents, except the South Pole. More than 100 countries has placed total or partial lockdown in response of this pandemic [1]. Lockdown has shown positive implication to the environment because since lockdown first applied in China, it is estimated that the greenhouse gas emission can be reduced up to 250 million ton and almost 400 million ton (in European Union) until the end of 2020 [2]. In the other side, lockdown causes many citizens to stock more food than their daily needs, or we call it panic buying. Panic buying can cause more food waste because people buy more than their needs and some people see that if the food changes in appearance, it is a sign that the food is rotten, but that is not always the case. Before this pandemic, the global food waste generation, if it is assumed as a country, it will become the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world with the total of 4.4 billion ton carbon emission [3]. Panic buying in the time of pandemic will make the global waste generation worse than before. It is estimated that 3 kg of food waste can produce 23 kg of CO2 emission [4]. On average, the global citizen produces 0.74 kg of waste every day and 44% of it are organic waste [5]. If 20% of the world citizen do panic buying 18 times (each time has a period of 2 weeks), it will produce 259.2 million ton of CO2 emission and that number has passed the 5% significance rate from the annual global carbon emission (approximately 4.4 billion ton) [3]. To prevent more greenhouse gas emission from more food waste, government needs to collaborate with the society to stop panic buying, since buying food is still permitted, even in the times of lockdown. If you have done panic buying and don’t know how to eat all the food that you have bought, you can share it to those who need it. Social movement in Indonesia, to help the online driver to eat by buying them double portion, has succeed and I believe that those who have done panic buying, they can do the same act. I hope, this short writing can make you think twice when you want to buy more food than your daily needs. Thank you. References: [1] Dunford, D., Dale, B., Stylianou, N., Lowther, E., Ahmed, M., dan Arenas, I. d. l. T. 2020. Coronavirus: The world in lockdown in maps and charts. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52103747, accessed on 12 April 2020, 15.07 GMT+7. [2] Stone, M. 2020. Carbon emissions are falling sharply due to coronavirus. But not for long. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/04/coronavirus-causing-carbon-emissions-to-fall-but-not-for-long/, accessed on 12 April 2020, 15.27 GMT+7. [3] FAO. 2011. Food wastage footprint & Climate Change. http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb144e.pdf, accessed on 12 April 2020, 15.52 GMT+7. [4] Oakes, K. 2020. How cutting your food waste can help the climate. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200224-how-cutting-your-food-waste-can-help-the-climate, accessed on 19 April 2020, 20.04 GMT+7. [5] World Bank Group. 2018. What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank.
Comments