Kitchen Waste Challenge Under the Table / Saying Goodbye to Pig Farming with Kitchen Waste, the Pain of Transformation in the Food and Beverage Industry May Be Passed on to Consumers

Banquet feasts, gourmet meals in department stores and shopping malls – these are everyday occurrences. However, when the era of feeding kitchen waste to pigs ends in 2027, it will be a storm for food and beverage retail giants. The pressure to dispose of 99% of this waste is a structural tsunami of surplus food on shelves and tables.

(中央社 reporter Jiang Mingyan, Taipei, 12th) With the 2027 ban on using kitchen waste for pig farming counting down, a very high proportion of kitchen waste from the food and beverage industry has historically been used for pig farming, inevitably leading to growing pains in waste management transformation. Large chain restaurant operators are concerned that "new kitchen waste treatment solutions won't be able to handle the load" and that "the northern region will face the greatest pressure." Costs driven up by transportation, wastewater, reliance on incineration, and supply-demand imbalances may end up on consumers' dinner tables.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Environment, Taiwan's total kitchen waste generation in 2025 was approximately 754,000 metric tons, of which 522,000 metric tons came from households and 232,000 metric tons from businesses. By treatment method, feed conversion accounted for 54.1%, composting 33.1%, energy recovery 7.5%, other 2.2%, incineration 2.8%, and landfill 0.3%. Over 50% of kitchen waste entered the pig farming system, making it the most important disposal channel.

Looking specifically at business kitchen waste from the food and beverage industry, the pressure is more apparent. Between 2021 and 2025, Taiwan's annual food and beverage kitchen waste was approximately 94,000 to 96,000 tons. In 2025, a staggering 98.5% of this waste was reused through pig farming.

The huge demand for kitchen waste disposal has come to the surface. A circular economy industry insider stated bluntly that if sufficient treatment capacity cannot be established, it could become a "national-level" kitchen waste crisis.

Regarding the 2027 ban, most operators spoke on condition of anonymity but privately expressed shared concerns. A senior executive from a large chain restaurant group told 中央社 that over 90% of the group's kitchen waste is used for pig farming. What they truly worry about is not that kitchen waste can no longer be fed to pigs, but whether the new treatment system will be ready in time after the ban takes effect.

"The market has already priced in the cost increases," the executive pointed out. Due to supply-demand imbalances, kitchen waste treatment prices have fluctuated. Before the African swine fever outbreak, the cost of kitchen waste treatment including transportation was about NT$4 per kilogram. After the pandemic, as kitchen waste gradually shifted to recycling facilities and centralized treatment systems, the treatment cost has risen to NT$9-12 per kilogram, a two-to-threefold increase.

"After the comprehensive ban on using kitchen waste for pig farming, the model will shift from 'pig farming reuse' to 'collection, transportation, and reuse treatment.' Transportation distances will lengthen, and additional pre-treatment and wastewater treatment costs will be incurred, so prices are bound to rise further," the executive lamented.

He further analyzed that using black soldier flies or enzymatic decomposition systems as examples, the front end typically requires dewatering. In the past, high-concentration kitchen waste water could be absorbed by pig farms, but now it becomes highly polluting wastewater that must enter the sewage system.

"Just wastewater treatment alone could add NT$3-4 per kilogram in costs," he said. In the future, the most expensive part may not be the kitchen waste itself, but the secondary waste generated during the treatment process.

Prices are related to regional capacity and treatment methods. After the policy adjustment, hotels, wedding banquet venues, and restaurants are actively seeking alternative solutions, but the cost increases they face are not uniform.

Taipei Marriott Hotel pointed out that if kitchen waste can only be treated as general waste or incinerated in the future, related expenses will inevitably increase. They are already discussing multiple disposal options with collection and recycling operators, and since 2025, they have been gradually introducing large commercial kitchen waste processors. Through dewatering, mixing, and crushing processes, the volume and weight of kitchen waste are reduced by approximately 30%.

KANPAI GROUP plans to use composting as its main disposal channel. However, since the treatment facilities are mostly located in other counties and cities, transportation costs are higher, and overall treatment costs are estimated to increase by about 25%. Composting also takes a longer time, and the actual disposal capacity remains to be seen. "If some kitchen waste ultimately has to be incinerated, costs could rise further."

Yu Ding Group, which operates Jing Yan Banquet Hall, has been preparing in advance. In the past two years, it has cooperated with government-subsidized kitchen waste treatment plants to convert kitchen waste into organic fertilizer.

Yu Ding shared that from 2025 to 2026, the monthly kitchen waste treatment cost for its seven venues is about NT$28,000, totaling approximately NT$336,000 per year. However, due to pricing adjustments next year, costs are expected to at least double.

Tsai Peng-pei, Section Chief of the General Waste Management Division of the Ministry of Environment's Environmental Management Administration, estimates that generally, treating business kitchen waste through composting or black soldier flies costs about NT$2-3 per kilogram. If incineration is required due to insufficient treatment capacity, the cost rises to NT$5-8 per kilogram.

However, he believes that "this situation is only a transitional phenomenon. Once treatment capacity reaches the target, the high costs are expected to disappear."

Additionally, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to learn from Japan's promotion of circular raw material feed production. Feed mills can add kitchen waste to produce standardized products that can also be used for pig farming. However, the actual implementation date has not been set, and it is hoped that this will significantly reduce the pressure on businesses to transform their kitchen waste management.

However, restaurant executives worry that this measure will be difficult to implement. After all, standardizing kitchen waste is challenging. If the kitchen waste comes from fixed sources like food factory scraps, there might be a chance to establish standards. But general kitchen waste has mixed components, making it difficult to confirm its composition, and promoting standardization will not be easy.

"The northern region will face the greatest pressure in the future," the executive admitted. Currently, most of Taiwan's kitchen waste recycling facilities are concentrated in the central and southern regions, but the most densely populated area with the highest concentration of food and beverage businesses is in the north. After the ban takes effect, "there will be a problem of cross-county/city kitchen waste disposal. We are actively working with vendors to plan treatment sites in the north."

Chang Huang-chen, Deputy Director of the Commerce Development Research Institute, also pointed out that composting plants, anaerobic fermentation plants, and other kitchen waste recycling facilities often face NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) opposition.

Residents worry about odors, traffic, and environmental impacts, causing the pace of new facility development to lag far behind demand growth. Chang stated, "Many problems are not due to technological limitations, but because social acceptance hasn't caught up."

A restaurant executive also said, "Many investors are willing to invest in treatment facilities, but they don't know if they can obtain legal permits." Another restaurant group revealed that its current partner, a Taiwanese composting company, does not have a waste collection and transportation license. If it cannot be legalized next year, "we will have to transfer the kitchen waste to a collection company for incineration."

According to sources, it often takes one to two years or more for a recycling facility to obtain all necessary permits from application.

"Due to high uncertainty, many kitchen waste treatment operators prefer to participate in government public projects first," a restaurant operator said. At this stage, most public facilities are not necessarily willing to accept business kitchen waste, and they hope for help in bridging the gap in business kitchen waste disposal capacity during the transition period.

As treatment costs continue to rise, the consumer's biggest concern is ultimately "whether food and beverage prices will go up."

The restaurant executive admitted, "Any long-term, structural cost increase is very difficult for a company to absorb entirely on its own." Especially for large chain restaurants that generate large amounts of kitchen waste daily, if the treatment cost per kilogram doubles, the accumulated expenditure is significant.

However, Tsai Peng-pei pointed out that even for banquet-style meals, after dewatering, each table generates about 1-2 kilograms of kitchen waste, with a treatment cost of about NT$6-10. For individual set meals, the leftover food is about 100 grams, with a treatment cost of only about NT$0.6. The impact on overall costs should be quite limited.

Chang Huang-chen stated that the food and beverage industry will inevitably face rising kitchen waste treatment costs, which will be particularly stressful for small and medium-sized operators. However, "those who generate waste should naturally bear the responsibility."

She warned that when pig farmers can no longer use kitchen waste to feed pigs, the cost of raising pigs with feed will inevitably increase, potentially driving up pork prices and increasing the burden on consumers. This might be the more concerning issue. (Editor: Chang Liang-chih, Lin Shu-yuan) 1150612