Frasers Property Singapore inked a memorandum of understanding with Life Lab Resources (LLR) on Jan 15 to roll out an upcycling programme for food waste produced at its malls. According to a press release, the WasteMaster food waste valorisation system will be implemented at five Frasers Property malls – Causeway Point, Waterway Point, Northpoint City, Century Square and Tampines 1.

“I’m heartened to bring our retail tenants onboard Singapore’s first-of-its-kind circular economy solution for food waste management in our collaborative drive towards a zero-waste and food-resilient future,” says Soon Su Lin, CEO of Frasers Property Singapore.

Instead of sending food waste to landfills, the WasteMaster system, developed by Australia-headquartered Green Eco Technologies, processes and converts the waste into nutrient-rich substrates. Food waste produced at the five Frasers Property malls will be processed at an onsite treatment plant operated by local firm LLR.

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LLR is also setting up a bio-refinery plant in 1Q2024 that will be used to transform the substrates produced into microbial protein that can potentially be used in commercial fish feed production. Once fully implemented, the new system is expected to reduce up to 2,200 tonnes of food waste and save up to 660 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually across the five malls.

The roll-out follows a seven-month food waste upcycling programme piloted at Causeway Point last year, which involved F&B tenants such as Bali Thai, Food Republic and Ichiban Boshi, and supermarket FairPrice Finest. Other F&B tenants such as Dian Xiao Er, Kuriya Japanese Market, PastaMania, Shabu Sai and Tokyo Shoduko joined the programme, contributing to an overall collection of over 52 tonnes of food waste during the year.

Frasers Property says the food waste valorisation system was able to reduce the net weight of food waste by up to 80% while retaining its nutritional value, creating substrates free of harmful pathogens such as E coli and salmonella. It adds that the programme could be upscaled to the rest of its malls in 2025. If extended to the other malls, the programme could cut down about 4,700 tonnes of food waste and reduce up to 1,600 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

“With the successful pilot at our Causeway Point mall, we look forward to the support and participation of more tenants in this food waste management programme across our malls,” says Soon. She adds that the company welcomes collaborative opportunities in testing innovative solutions to help build a greener and more liveable Singapore.