PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - The Bandung City Government (Pemkot) and the Melbourne City Government, Australia, are collaborating to develop solutions to the problem of food waste that are measurable and can be implemented both locally and globally.

For this reason, the two agencies held the Melbourne - Bandung Food Waste Challenge 2025. This activity is one of the implementations of the follow-up to the cooperation stated in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in April 2024.

Melbourne - Bandung Food Waste Challenge 2025 is an innovation designed to address the problem of food waste by utilizing the creativity of the people of Bandung and Melbourne.

This activity was also carried out simultaneously with the launch in Melbourne City on February 26, 2025.

"The city of Bandung is proud to be a partner of the Melbourne city government in achieving zero food waste. As metropolitan cities, Bandung and Melbourne both have food waste problems," said Acting Regional Secretary (Sekda) of Bandung City Iskandar Zulkarnain at the Launching of Melbourne - Bandung Food Waste Challenge 2025, at the Auditorium of the Bandung City Hall, Wednesday (26/2/2025).

He said that statistics show that Indonesia is the second largest producer of food waste in the world, with around 13 million tons of food waste being thrown away every year.

Iskandar said that the value of wasted food reaches 5 percent of gross domestic product. Meanwhile, in Australia, food waste is worth 3.36 billion Australian dollars.

Based on data from the Environmental Service in 2022, in Bandung City, of the approximately 1,500 tons of daily waste, 44.5 percent is food waste or the equivalent of 667.5 tons per day.

"Today we are not only talking about problems but solutions. 'Melbourne - Bandung Food Waste Challenge 2025' is a real manifestation of collaboration between two friendly countries that aims to find innovative and practical solutions to overcome the problem of food waste," he said.

He added that this program not only involves the government, but also students, business people, researchers, start-ups, and the general public. The ultimate goal is zero food waste.

"Reflecting on the city of Melbourne, there is a movement called 'Garbage Butler', where activists and cycling communities collect fogo (food and garden organics) waste from restaurants there," he said.

"In terms of city characteristics, Melbourne and Bandung have similarities, namely many hotels and restaurants that produce food waste every day. Melbourne was even recorded as the highest city producing food waste in Australia," he said.

Through this competition, Zul continued, efforts are being made to encourage innovation in three main sectors, namely hospitality (catering), markets, and airlines.

These three sectors have a large contribution to producing food waste, but also have great potential to be part of the solution.

"For example, in the catering sector we can develop a more efficient leftover food management system. In the market, we can use technology to distribute food that is still edible to those in need. In airlines, we can reduce food waste with a more precise food ordering system," he said.

For information, the challenge participants are the people of Bandung and Melbourne, including students, business people, researchers, startups, who have innovative solutions that are committed to sustainability.

Participants will work together in teams to develop innovative solutions in the themes of waste reduction at source, food redistribution, recycling and the circular economy and community education.

Registration for this activity has been open since February 3 - March 14, 2025. For 8-10 weeks, teams will attend workshops, mentoring from industry experts and develop prototypes in overcoming food waste.