UFT Features: MAEKO - The Food Waste Specialist

When Mae from Mentari Alam Eko (MAEKO) first discovered that food waste contributes to more than 45% of the waste in landfill, she dove deep into finding solutions to mitigate the problem.

Residences exchanged food waste with compost at Maeko composting-on-wheel event.

Having no prior knowledge in composting, Mae started familiarising herself with all she had to know about composting. From food waste to its environmental impacts; household composting to commercial composting.

When experimenting with traditional composting, she realised that the strenuous effort that needs to be put into the maintenance of compost is non-conducive to most people, let alone places like malls or hotels where waste is produced in mass. Hence, she resorted to industrial compost machines.

Inputting food waste into MAEKO composting machine.

Initially, she and her team tried and tested composting machines from other countries where food waste technology is at the forefront of the globe. However, their technology and microbes could not accommodate the high oil content in the Malaysian diet, rendering it incompatible to process our waste.

To resolve the gap between the technology and contextual differences, Mae —with a biotechnology background— and her co-founder —who did the designing— innovated a composting machine that is suitable for Malaysians.

MAEKO Composting Machine

MAEKO composting machine turns food waste into bio-organic compost within 24 hours that acts as a soil enhancement, a natural resource to give back to the environment.

Compost from food waste

The five years spent on research and development before the launch of their first product paid off. Today, MAEKO’s state-of-the-art composters are deployed in hotels, supermarkets, hotels, and hospitals. In fact, MAEKO was the only company representing Malaysia to be recognized by the United Nations Foundation as part of Solution Summit 2019. All through the trials and tribulations, MAEKO’ conviction evidently remains consistent — to resolve the food wastage issue in Malaysia.

Residences queuing to input food waste into the composting machine.

Mae has observed the lack of policy in Malaysia to responsibly manage food waste instead of discarding it to landfill. A force to continuously be reckoned, MAEKO is now looking for solutions to increase the accessibility of composting practice to the general public.

Want to know how to get started with your own vegetable farm at home through urban farming? Simply reach out to us at francis@urbanfarmtech.net or give us a call at

+6012 666 7474 and look for Francis.