Maeko Founder and CEO Chelsea Chee
From Indian to Chinese and Malay to Peranakan, Malaysia has it all when it comes to food cuisines.
Due to its vast array of cultures, Malaysians have inherited a melting pot of cuisines. Amidst the large amounts of food prepared and consumed locally, a problem of equal scale has emerged.
According to a 2019 report by siliconindia, Malaysia ranks fifth globally for food wastage, with each person wasting up to 560kg of food annually. Furthermore, there is a dearth of awareness campaigns that educate the public on utilising food waste as a resource. This ignorance has led to a chilling statistic.
The Solid Waste Corporation Malaysia shared that food waste amounted to 15,000 tonnes daily, with 20 per cent remaining consumable at the point of disposal.
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These figures represented a calling for Chelsea Chee to develop a sustainable food waste management platform to solve this increasingly serious problem.
That led to the creation of Maeko, a startup that utilises composting as a way to turn food waste into nutrient-rich bio-organic fertilisers.
Why composting
“Composting is the most convenient and simplest way to settle the food waste issue. It can be practised on-site from a minimum amount of food waste ranging from household capacity to large amount in commercial and industrial,” said Founder and CEO Chee as she shared on the rationale behind choosing composting as the medium to reduce food wastage.
Furthermore, composting does not generate methane gas. Chee remarks that rotten food waste in landfills releases this potent gas that is reportedly 25x more harmful to global warming than carbon dioxide.
Maeko claims its composters ship with a specially formulated composting enzyme called Speedozyme, which can compost all type of organic waste including garden waste, raw kitchen scraps and even cooked food waste with bones, gravy and sauce.
Upon composting, food waste is turned into nutrient-rich fertiliser. Chee claims it takes 500-1,000 years to form an inch of topsoil. The compost helps restore soil fertility and balance nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) within it in a natural way with activities from the microbe.
Maeko’s composters can compost food waste within 24 hours for its industrial unit and 48 hours for its portable unit.
Changing perceptions
Amidst the panic buying during the lockdowns imposed, there has been an increased focus on food wastage.
“The public is rethinking and throwing less food away and being more hygienic in managing their food waste,” Chee opined.
As movement restrictions continue within the region and remote work remains the default option, more are eating at home and have grown warier of the food waste they are generating, she remarked.
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Coupled with families starting to adopt urban farming and gardening as a bonding activity during the lockdown, Chee reported that composting had been well received by the community.
The MunchBot composting unit
Communal composting
Since its incorporation in 2011, Maeko’s composters have mainly served businesses in various industries, ranging from hospitality and manufacturing to retail and healthcare.
However, Chee shared that she had been receiving an increasing number of requests from individuals to tackle food wastage at a community level.
That led to the creation of MunchBot, a communal-sized composter that fits comfortably in homes. Envisioning composting and reducing food wastage to be part of a lifestyle, MunchBot completes Maeko’s range of composters to ensure everyone, from industries to families, have access to one.
In addition to its operating base in Malaysia, Maeko has partnerships in Thailand, The Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Maldives. The startup is looking to partner with more international partners as it seeks to expand globally.
With the global market size of food waste management estimated to hit US$42.4 billion by 2022, there are definitely reasons to be optimistic amidst an increased focus on sustainability.
Maeko is raising up to MYR4,000,000 (close to US$1 million) via equity crowdfunding platform Ata Plus, mainly for production and marketing of the MunchBOT units.
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Image Credit: Maeko
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