Inside treatsure’s unique concept store in Tanjong Pagar Plaza, something special is taking place. Here, corporate executives and students alike are united by a single mission: learning how to combat food waste through cooking workshops, food tasting sessions and sustainability learning journey tours.

When Mr Preston Wong first started the social enterprise in 2017, convincing Singaporeans to rally behind his cause was no small feat.  

Fast-forward to today, and the social enterprise is making noticeable waves, with companies and organisations savvier about environmental, social and corporate governance initiatives and more eagerly partnering with Mr Wong on sustainability initiatives. 

For his tireless efforts, Mr Wong was honoured as one of the 12 recipients of the EcoFriend Awards 2022, in the Non-Governmental Organisations and Grassroots Volunteers category. Organised biennially by the National Environment Agency (NEA), these awards shine a light on local changemakers helping to make Singapore a more sustainable country to work, play and live in.

While Mr Wong admits being a “consume-and-dispose” person in his younger days, it was through noticing the staggering amount of food waste that was being generated that he decided to do something about it.

“We are a nation of food lovers but ironically, we are also big generators of food waste: from households to army camps, events and buffets,” he says.

Since founding treatsure with business partner Mr Kenneth Ham, one of the enterprise’s key initiatives is an app that alerts consumers to food and beverage outlets, including hotel buffets, where they can purchase food surplus from as little as $10. Mr Wong stresses that this is not leftover food, but food left on the buffet line in the last 30 to 60 minutes before the restaurants close for each mealtime across the day.

To further reduce food wastage at every stage of the F&B ecosystem, treatsure has since diversified into selling surplus and imperfect groceries like mildly dented canned food or blemished produce in 2019. More recently, the enterprise has ventured into lifestyle products like home composting kits and beeswax food wraps.

For Mr Wong, receiving the EcoFriend Award has encouraged him to speak up more actively on food sustainability as he believes it's important to instil the concept of sustainability in the next generation.

Over the past few years, he has not only contributed to developing the sustainability law and policy curriculum at the SMU Yong Pung How School of Law and Yale-NUS College, but is also teaching these courses – all while undertaking a masters in environmental management at the National University of Singapore.

He says: “We do not have to go far out and expend a lot of time and resources all the time. We can make use of our existing roles, relationships and capacities to create the impact we envision, whether it’s starting conversations with our friends about environmental topics, or avoiding impulse buying.”

Empowering over 3,000 people to join and organise beach clean-ups

While Mr Wong zeroes in on food sustainability, Ms Samantha Thian has her eyes set on protecting the marine environment. 

Also a recipient of the EcoFriend Awards 2022 – in the Youth and Students category – she kickstarted a Telegram group called “East Coast Beach Plan”, which has amassed more than 3,000 members committed to cleaning up Singapore’s coastline since its inception in July 2020. 

Earlier that year, the certified divemaster and ocean lover had noticed a lot more trash washing up on Singapore’s beaches, especially Covid-19-related waste such as masks and gloves. Border closures and foreign worker dormitory lockdowns led to less manpower for beach clean-ups.

Undeterred, Ms Thian, who is also the founder of social enterprise Seastainable – which tackles marine debris and supports ocean life conservation – first took things into her own hands and started cleaning the shores along East Coast Park. 

But upon realising that more hands on deck would make clean-ups more efficient, Ms Thian created the Telegram group. She began inviting anyone interested in cleaning up Singapore’s beaches to organise clean-ups with other members. To date, more than 400 of such clean-ups have been done across beaches and mangrove swamps. 

To scale the efforts, Ms Thian, who is also the full-time senior sustainability manager for Electrolux in the Asia-Pacific region, also helped to develop Stridy – an app which allows users to track the impact of their litter picking and share photos. 

The “East Coast Beach Plan” Telegram community has become self-sustaining and members no longer wait for her to coordinate clean-ups. For instance, there are constant photo alerts of beaches that are dirty as well as members’ updates on the clean-up sessions that have been completed, with some amassing more than 300kg of litter in one morning. 

“I believe the right technology is important, however I also realise that technology cannot solve all problems. Hence, it really boils down to a person's will and commitment to make a change for the better,” says Ms Thian.

She adds: “I think a lot of people are held back by perfectionism. It’s a very long journey and the important thing is to really just try.

“We don’t need one person doing sustainability perfectly, we need a million doing it imperfectly.”