A care continuum : Food waste challenge in Hong Kong and its narration in action

This article examines Hong Kong’s food waste management through the concept of a ‘care continuum’ that spans from technologically-driven governance to community-embedded practices. Drawing on participatory action research with community initiatives and policy analysis, I narrate how divergent approaches to waste care materialize in urban contexts. Technocratic ‘auditing care’ operates through governance that privileges infrastructure development, centralized processing and audit-driven metrics while inadvertently undermining the ecological relations it aims to support. In contrast, community-based ‘embodying care’ transforms food waste from abstract ‘putrescible matter’ into companion materials with distinctive properties, developing contextually specific waste care relationships through tactile knowledge, contextual repair, and social exchange. Through the Day Day Waste-Wise action program in Hong Kong’s New Territories, I document how university students, residents, restaurant workers, market vendors, and farmers collectively generate operational knowledge that addresses gaps in official waste systems through practical interventions and collaborative learning. By conceptualizing food waste management as a care continuum rather than merely a technical problem, we transform our understanding of both waste materiality and the social relationships enacted through its handling. The framework reveals how response-ability – the capacity to respond to waste challenges through contextually appropriate practices – emerges through the dynamic interplay of material encounters, social possibilities, and ethical responsiveness in action. The care continuum offers a policy framework that challenges the notion that ‘society is not prepared’ for waste management change, instead recognizing that preparing society requires engaging the full spectrum of waste care practices. This article is part of a special issue Re-creating Care as Mattering Practices.