With the aim of reducing food waste in Macau, a project entitled “Macau Community Fridge” was launched by Macau ECOnscious, an enterprise related to environmental protection, and announced on their Facebook page last Thursday.

The project allows people to leave food donations at the Catholic Pastoral Centre (天主教牧民中心) in Rua de Francisco António, which are sorted and placed in a community fridge. The food will be available for free to anyone who visits the centre. Regarding the donations, their Facebook announcement noted that “Any food is accepted as long as you believe it is clean and in good condition: vegetables, fruit, eggs, dry food, tinned food and cooked food.”

Speaking with The Macau Post Daily yesterday, Gilberto Camacho, the founder and director of Macau ECOconscious, said that the project was driven by the need to take action in response to the notable impact on Macau’s environment, as well as finding that food waste makes up a large portion of the waste in Macau. He also cited community fridge projects in places such as the US and the Netherlands as inspirations for this idea in Macau.

Camacho said he believed that there have been people waiting for a project like this for some time, citing those who work in restaurants that do not know what to do with some of their food as an example.

He also said that in his opinion, some people perhaps feel that food as a resource is unlimited due to its availability and added that “we have to be cautious, as a planet, not only Macau, but the whole planet to sustain our lives.”

Speaking of the feedback since the project’s launch, he said that the project has been doing well and that the feedback to his Facebook post was unexpected, adding that “I’ve been receiving overwhelming feedback. I never had a post with so many shares”.

The Facebook post for the project has been shared numerous times and currently has more than a hundred likes.

He said that although he was happy about the result, he was looking forward to being able to reduce even more food waste and helping those that this project can benefit.

In addition, when speaking of the project’s future, he said that the project was a permanent one, adding that it would continue as long as there is a refrigerator available and a place to keep it. He also mentioned plans to set up a second location after observing how this project performs.

He also expressed gratitude to those who helped make the project come true, including Father Franz, Maria Rita from the University of St Joseph’s (USJ), and Alyson Lundstrom from Blissful Carrot, a vegetarian restaurant in Taipa, for their contributions.