A group of Omani women has initiated an idea to recycle the leftover food that happens with almost all households and hotels and to recycle them into fertilisers.

Titled 'Zeelah project', a group of seven women from the National Finance has won the best project award at the Springboard competition by the Ooredoo on Tuesday.

"Our project is all about recycling the leftover food that happens with commercial entities and households in Oman. This is a noble concept that addresses the big issue of wasting food," said Alia al Balushi, the key force behind the project.

"We have solar powered bins which will be distributed among the corporates and households, predominantly in Muscat to start with. However, the commercial production of the same has not been started yet," Alia added.

She said the term ‘Zeelah’ is from Omani culture which means a bin where the households collect food for their animals and the project is in line with the national vision to support well-being of the environment.

“Upon successful implementation of the project in Muscat Governorate, we will move to other governorates and inculcate a culture of ‘reduce’, ‘reuse’ and ‘recycle’ for the sake of environment protection,” she said.

The team of women feels that the best use of such a project is during the holy month of Ramadhan when households as well as corporates waste tonnes of both cooked and uncooked foods and raw materials.

Also, the team is in the final stages of creating a mobile app which will help households to cooperate with ‘Zeelah’ on an individual basis.

“We have some investors asking us to give a hand and we have already spoken to the ministries and corporates and we are expecting some good feedback to take this project forward. Being selected to be the best project at the Springboard by Ooredoo gives us more confidence in marching ahead,” Alia said.

There have been concerns of excess food being cooked and wasted and in response to the cries, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MoAFWR) has initiated Oman Food Bank (Daima) and was able to save more than 100,000 meals weighing 60 tonnes with the value at an estimated at RO 100,000, according to the Daima representatives.

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