How Wilson Cheng’s start-up is cutting in-flight food waste
South China Morning Post
25th September 2026
How Wilson Cheng’s start-up is cutting in-flight food waste
Young minds, big ideas: meet five laureates of the AIA Scholarships programme, which was founded on the belief that education can open doors not only for individuals, but for the communities they will one day serve.
There is a 7mm gap between the main body and the handle of an airline trolley – that is the space Wilson Cheng Wui-sum’s camera has to fit into without disrupting the in-flight service.
Cheng, 21, majors in computer science at Polytechnic University with a minor in information security. In August 2025, he and four friends incorporated a start-up that helps airlines reduce food waste using artificial-intelligence-powered devices. It is, by design, unglamorous: a compact gadget, mounted on a service trolley, running offline at cruising altitude. As trays are returned to the trolley, the device’s camera records the leftover contents and the AI-driven tracking app identifies what has (and hasn’t) been eaten – half a portion of the main course, a bread roll, a drink barely touched.
Born from a sustainability hackathon held by a local airline in 2024, his start-up’s solution addresses a pressing issue: more than US$5 billion worth of in-flight meals are wasted each year. Roughly 30 per cent of all food and drink goes uneaten, according to Cheng. He and his team placed third in the competition, and are now partnering with the airline to launch a smart waste-tracking system.
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