Senior Minister for Trade and Industry- Dr Koh Poh Koon’s visit to Westcom Solutions on 10 December 2018

Dr Koh Poh Koon- Senior Minister for Trade and Industry- viewed a demonstration on food waste processing by A*STAR’s SME partner Westcom Solutions on 10 Dec 2018. Westcom specialises in food recycling services- and benefitted from its R&D partnership with A*STAR’s Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES).

When Westcom was founded in 2016- its CEO- Mr David Tan- initially imported food waste processing machines- as well as commercial sources of microbes- from Japan. However these microbes were found to be ill-suited to Singapore due to differences in the food consumption habits and the climate between the two countries.

Realising the need to innovate for the local market- Westcom began collaborating with ICES in 2017- after being linked up by A*STAR’s SME Office. Leveraging on ICES’ expertise in the field- Westcom developed a proprietary microbial treatment customised to break down local food waste. A*STAR also helped Westcom to set-up its own R&D laboratory for the large-scale manufacturing of its own brand of microbes- as well trained its R&D staff.

Since then- Westcom has seen its revenue increase substantially with a client portfolio of around 30 clients.

On Monday- SMS Koh viewed a demonstration of the food waste machine which breaks down local food waste with the customised microbes- and how odourless and pathogen-free fertilizer is produced in 24 hours.

Read more below:

• The Straits Times: Digester turns Singaporeans' food waste into fertiliser in just 24 hours
• Lianhe Zaobao: Westcom partners A*STAR in developing recycling machine to turn kitchen waste into organic fertilisers
• TODAYonline: A*Star- Singapore firm develop system that turns food waste into odourless fertiliser in 24 hours