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In a recent report, the World Economic Forum identified cutting food waste by up to 20 million tons as one of 12 measures that could help transform global food systems by 2030. And South Korea stands out — taking the lead by recycling 95% of its food waste.
But it wasn’t always this way.
The mouth-watering array of side dishes that accompany a traditional South Korean meal — called “banchan” — are often left unfinished, contributing to one of the world’s highest rates of food waste. South Koreans each generate more than 130 kg of food waste each year. By comparison, per capita, food waste in Europe and North America is 95 to 115 kg a year, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
But the South Korean government has taken radical action to ensure that the mountain of wasted food was recycled.
As far back as 2005, dumping food in landfills was banned, and in 2013 the government introduced compulsory food waste recycling using special biodegradable bags. An average four-person family pays $6 a month for the bags, a fee that helps encourage home composting. The bag charges also meet 60% of the cost of running the scheme, which has increased the amount of food waste recycled from 2% in 1995 to 95% today. The government has approved the use of recycled food waste as fertilizer, although some become animal feed.
Technology has also played a leading part in the success of the scheme. In the country’s capital, Seoul, 6,000 automated bins equipped with scales and radio frequency identification weigh food waste as it is deposited and charge residents using an ID card. The pay-as-you-recycle machines have reduced food waste in the city by 47,000 tons in six years, according to city officials.
Residents are urged to reduce the weight of the waste they deposit by removing moisture first. Not only does this cut the charges they pay — food waste is around 80% moisture — but it also saved the city $8.4 million in collection charges over the same period.
Waste collected using the biodegradable bag scheme is squeezed at the processing plant to remove moisture, which is used to create biogas and bio-oil. Dry waste is turned into fertilizer that is, in turn, helping to drive the country’s burgeoning urban farm movement.
The number of urban farms or community gardens in Seoul has increased sixfold in the past seven years. They now total 170 hectares — roughly the size of 240 football fields. Most are sandwiched between apartment blocks or on top of schools and municipal buildings. One is even located in the basement of an apartment block. It is used to grow mushrooms.
The city government provides between 80% and 100% of the start-up costs. As well as providing food, proponents of the scheme say urban farms bring people together as a community in areas where residents are often isolated from one another. The city authorities are planning to install food waste composters to support urban farms.
This brings us back to banchan. In the long term, some people argue South Koreans will need to change their eating habits if they are really going to make a dent in their food waste.
Kim Mi-Hwa, chair of the Korea Zero Waste Movement Network, told Huffington Post: “There’s a limit to how much food waste fertilizer can actually be used. This means there has to be a change in our dining habits, such as shifting to a one-plate culinary culture like other countries or at least reducing the number of banchan that we layout.”
On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). This decision was based on the evidence presented to the TAG-VE that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how easily it spreads or the severity of illness it causes. Here is a summary of what is currently known.
Current knowledge about Omicron
Researchers in South Africa and around the world are conducting studies to better understand many aspects of Omicron and will continue to share the findings of these studies as they become available.
Transmissibility: It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g., more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta. The number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic studies are underway to understand if it is because of Omicron or other factors.
Severity of disease: It is not yet clear whether infection with Omicron causes more severe disease compared to infections with other variants, including Delta. Preliminary data suggests that there are increasing rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people becoming infected, rather than a result of specific infection with Omicron. There is currently no information to suggest that symptoms associated with Omicron are different from those from other variants. Initial reported infections were among university students—younger individuals who tend to have more mild disease—but understanding the level of severity of the Omicron variant will take days to several weeks. All variants of COVID-19, including the Delta variant that is dominant worldwide, can cause severe disease or death, in particular for the most vulnerable people, and thus prevention is always key.
Effectiveness of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection
Preliminary evidence suggests there may be an increased risk of reinfection with Omicron (ie, people who have previously had COVID-19 could become reinfected more easily with Omicron), as compared to other variants of concern, but information is limited. More information on this will become available in the coming days and weeks.
Effectiveness of vaccines: WHO is working with technical partners to understand the potential impact of this variant on our existing countermeasures, including vaccines. Vaccines remain critical to reducing severe disease and death, including against the dominant circulating variant, Delta. Current vaccines remain effective against severe disease and death.
Effectiveness of current tests: The widely used PCR tests continue to detect infection, including infection with Omicron, as we have seen with other variants as well. Studies are ongoing to determine whether there is any impact on other types of tests, including rapid antigen detection tests.
Effectiveness of current treatments: Corticosteroids and IL6 Receptor Blockers will still be effective for managing patients with severe COVID-19. Other treatments will be assessed to see if they are still as effective given the changes to parts of the virus in the Omicron variant.
Studies underway
At the present time, WHO is coordinating with a large number of researchers around the world to better understand Omicron. Studies currently underway or underway shortly include assessments of transmissibility, severity of infection (including symptoms), performance of vaccines and diagnostic tests, and effectiveness of treatments.
WHO encourages countries to contribute the collection and sharing of hospitalized patient data through the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Data Platform to rapidly describe clinical characteristics and patient outcomes.
More information will emerge in the coming days and weeks. WHO’s TAG-VE will continue to monitor and evaluate the data as it becomes available and assess how mutations in Omicron alter the behaviour of the virus.
Recommended actions for countries
As Omicron has been designated a Variant of Concern, there are several actions WHO recommends countries to undertake, including enhancing surveillance and sequencing of cases; sharing genome sequences on publicly available databases, such as GISAID; reporting initial cases or clusters to WHO; performing field investigations and laboratory assessments to better understand if Omicron has different transmission or disease characteristics, or impacts effectiveness of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics or public health and social measures. More detail in the announcement from 26 November.
Countries should continue to implement the effective public health measures to reduce COVID-19 circulation overall, using a risk analysis and science-based approach. They should increase some public health and medical capacities to manage an increase in cases. WHO is providing countries with support and guidance for both readiness and response.
In addition, it is vitally important that inequities in access to COVID-19 vaccines are urgently addressed to ensure that vulnerable groups everywhere, including health workers and older persons, receive their first and second doses, alongside equitable access to treatment and diagnostics.
Recommended actions for people
The most effective steps individuals can take to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus is to keep a physical distance of at least 1 metre from others; wear a well-fitting mask; open windows to improve ventilation; avoid poorly ventilated or crowded spaces; keep hands clean; cough or sneeze into a bent elbow or tissue; and get vaccinated when it’s their turn.
In her 80th year, the Babushka of Baikal still skates gracefully on the original blades her father made for her 70 years ago.
Lyubov Morekhodova has generated worldwide attention for her ice skating prowess on Siberia’s frozen Lake Baikal. But the 79-year-old woman –- affectionately known as the Babushka (meaning grandmother) of Baikal — can’t understand what all the fuss is about.
Morekhodova has been ice skating since she was eight years old. Initially, it was a resourceful way to shorten the four-kilometre hike between school and home. Over the years, the pastime has served as a peaceful escape from her hard-working lifestyle.
Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, contains approximately 23 percent of the world’s surface water. Larger in surface area than the entire country of Belgium, with more water than all the Great Lakes combined, the temperature around Lake Baikal can plummet below minus 50˚C in midwinter.
Morekhodova was born In the village of Shara-Togot in the Irkutsk region, just weeks before World War II began. She was one of seven children to a forester father and homemaker mother. When construction began on the Irkutsk Dam, the family was relocated to the city of Khaly. Here, Morekhodova was first introduced to ice skating.
To halve the distance to school each day, she came up with a plan to skate across the lake. But where could she acquire a pair of skates in rural Siberia? Her father found a homemade solution.
“He cut two strips out of a steel saw, inserted them into planks of wood, and attached the wood to valenki [felt boots],” Morekhodova explained. “He didn’t know how to skate himself, but he went a very long way to support me.”
A few years later when she moved to boarding school, the walk home quadrupled, so again she shortened the route by skating.
“Once when I broke through the ice and fell in, I only survived because two of my classmates pulled me out,” Morekhodova recalls. “I had to run all the way back home with my clothes feeling like a sheet of ice.”
Despite that one near miss, being on the frozen lake offers a respite from her hard rural life in Siberia.
She wakes daily at 5 am to tend her cattle, which struggle to find grass during the winter. Once, three calves went missing and never came back. As she often does when she’s searching for wayward livestock, Morekhodova put on her skates for the search.
Before tending cattle, she processed fish in the family shop, worked in security and as an apprentice welder. She also worked for 42 years as a technologist in a factory. After her husband and children died, farming helped her regain a sense of purpose. She now has 11 cows, plus hens, four dogs and three cats.
To Morekhodova, skating is simply a joyful activity. But when a friend of hers posted a video of her on the ice a few years ago, she suddenly started receiving calls from all over the world.
Politely, Morekhodova answers questions all hours of the night from interested reporters. She kindly obliges them by sending photos from her simple phone, although coverage isn’t ideal in this part of Siberia. Once she was even asked to give a public speech in Moscow, a city she’d not visited since the 1970s.
Though Morekhodova may not understand her newfound attention, it’s likely that for everyone else, the joy stems from seeing such carefree grace in an elderly woman.
Seeing her swirl on the original skates built by her father all those years ago is mesmerizing.
This article is second in the Alchemist series on material researchers. Tejas Sidnal is one of the winners of the No Waste Challenge, What Design Can Do’s third Climate Action Challenge in partnership with the IKEA Foundation. Launched in January 2021, the design competition called for bold solutions to reduce waste and rethink our entire production and consumption cycle.
The quest for three basic human needs—clean air, clean water, and clean food—fueled the research and innovation at Carbon Craft Design, a Goa-based design studio. Tejas Sidnal, the founder, had always been excited about mimicking the strategies of nature in his design solutions. Well versed in material science, biomimicry and computational design, his current work focuses on harnessing air pollution to create carbon tiles.
Today, 39% of global energy-related carbon emissions are attributed to buildings. Having worked as an architect for a few years, Sidnal was disappointed with his profession’s huge contributing to air pollution. He sought to bring his academic-based research into the real world where it could make a difference, building architecture that enabled clean air, water and food. Enter Carbon Craft Design, a creative start-up that upcycles carbon through the fusion of high-tech practices and low-tech craftsmanship.
“Take a look around yourself, can you see anything that’s black?” Sidnal asks. The black color of phone screens, tires, and rubbers is obtained from a byproduct of burnt fossil fuel, called carbon black. This waste material is produced in tons and is usually dumped or further burnt away, significantly contributing to air pollution. It is this waste material, carbon black, that Carbon Craft Design currently uses in their products, filling the gap in the industry for low carbon-intensive products.
Trying to find applications of the material, the team came up with prototypes of bricks, facade elements, and finally, tiles. While research and precedents proved the feasibility of bricks, the product was not something that would sell as it lacked aesthetic value. An alternative that they arrived at then was a facade element – it had the design factor, but wasn’t commercially scalable. Then came the inspiration to make tiles out of carbon. The tiles would narrate a story with its handcrafted art form and would be scalable as it has a variety of uses. The tile industry in India hasn’t evolved in decades, greasing the wheels for a novel product to enter the market.
The experimental design practice carefully amalgamates a 200-year old traditional craft with cutting edge material science. Collaborating with artisans at Morbi, Gujarat—the 2nd largest tile production cluster in the world—Sidnal and his team pivoted on generational knowledge to create tiles that respect nature.
Carbon Craft Design was excellent with their material innovation, and the artisans with their craft. Finding a balance between both was tricky, but led to better understanding and cooperation between both parties. The artisans could intuitively sense that the material would not work as a tile, sending the R&D team back to the drawing board. They also helped shape the design perspective, educating the start-up on what would and wouldn’t be possible. The partnership taught Sidnal how they could work with various mixes and base materials to create more feasibly designed products.
Sidnal recognizes the huge opportunity in working with artisans and traditional crafts. The handicraft industry is the second-largest livelihood provider in India. “We have the people, the skill sets, and the infrastructure. All we need is the right fusion of technology and material to be superior leaders in the fight against climate change,” he states. Material is the core component of design and will be the defining element of what makes design sustainable. While handcrafted techniques and systems can remain the same, the material that artisans use needs critical analysis and change.
Carbon Craft Design aspires to employ 1000 happy artisans. They also envision transferring their knowledge to different states and countries. Sidnal shares, “We imagine the artisans as craft warriors; as climate warriors. It becomes a craft against climate change.”
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