How Hong Kong’s bun runs help to reduce food waste while getting volunteers fit
- The brainchild of James Marlow, a British teacher who founded Waste Free Hong Kong, the bun run combines volunteering with exercise
- Participants pick up unsold food and deliver it to an organisation that redistributes it to those in need
Finding time to help the community can be difficult during Hong Kong’s busy working weeks, so one local organisation is combining volunteering with a dose of exercise as incentive. First there were plogs (running while picking up rubbish), now there are bun runs.
Led by James Marlow, a 27-year-old teacher from Britain who last year founded Waste Free Hong Kong, bun runsare not just a way to address food waste but “an opportunity to burn calories and make new friends”.
After gathering in Sheung Wan, the group splits up to collect up to 300 unsold items from 12 Maxim’s and Arome bakeries in the area, before taking the MTR to Shek Kip Mei, to drop the goods off at the People Service Centre. The organisation hands out the food to those in need the next day.
Clocking between 2km and 3km each time, bun runs are accessible to people of all ages and levels of ability.
“It’s not just a gimmick; we’re doing something good,” Marlow says. “It’s a way of opening up environmentalism to people who wouldn’t usually join – we’ve had people join who are just keen runners.”