A couple of weeks back I shared an incident with my social media friends that left me worried and confused. I went to this high-end breakfast place with a friend and ordered juice with my food. Neatly setting aside the plastic straw wrapped in paper packing, I finished drinking my juice directly from the glass. We requested the bill, and the waiter came to clear the table. With swift movements, he picked up the plates and started stacking them on his tray one on top of the other. As he was finishing, he picked up my almost-empty juice glass with only some froth at the bottom and to my horror with another swift whoosh! scooped up my un-used straw and THREW it inside my glass!  Probably already thinking about his next order, he walked away oblivious to my bewildered expression with which I had been watching the straw wrapper soak up the left-over liquid in the glass and then redirected the same expression towards my friend who burst out laughing unable to hide the amusement at the ridiculousness of what had just happened!

This incident, although funny, left me thinking of ways this issue must be tackled until today when I experienced a counter incident. Today I went for lunch at a dhaaba (street food stall). I ordered a plate of chicken liver with one chapati. The waiter was eager to get my order quickly but then suddenly he turned back with an expression as if he had just realized something very important. With the utmost respect, simplicity and effortlessness he said something that left me like ‘SIR!*salute*’. He asked me the following question,

‘Would you like to reduce your curry to half plate…? *pause* …because otherwise it would get wasted…?’

I could only manage a slight nod as he walked away with my order, probably confused by the shock on my face. As much as I was impressed by his presence of mind to have quickly calculated that a half plate might be sufficient for one chapati instead of a full plate, I was also inspired by the ease with which he asked me this. As if it was the most obvious thing to do. As if he instinctively understood that one must never be hesitant or feel ashamed of asking such questions because the answer to them matters and makes an impact.

This got me thinking that such an outlook may not be internalized as deeply through education/awareness/training as it would be through a lifestyle that is governed by resource conflict, poverty and vulnerability. I started imagining how this waiter would confront a case of poor food waste management. I wondered what he would have to say if included in a consultation as a stakeholder? Would he maybe guide us to a very basic perspective that we might have missed entirely because we never got the time to take our heads out of the elaborate textbooks and complex machinery? But even more embarrassingly, I wondered how ridiculous we all might look to him if he ever walked into a room and saw us sitting on our fancy tables with our heads together and brows frowned, discussing something as simple to him as food waste management.

Maria Ajmal is the founder of Enovate Consulting, a climate-focused advisory firm helping businesses navigate the transition to a low-carbon economy. With deep expertise in waste management, energy efficiency, and sustainability frameworks, she works at the intersection of innovation and impact—designing solutions that turn environmental challenges into opportunities. Maria is passionate about empowering the private sector to lead on climate action through strategic insight, technical precision, and bold collaboration.