From Food Waste to Circular Value: Diagnosing the Policy‐Mix Failure in Malaysia's Urban Food‐Waste Governance

ABSTRACT Malaysia's urban food‐waste system remains strongly landfill‐dependent despite mature recovery technologies and successive circular‐economy policies. This study examines whether persistence reflects weaknesses in the policy mix rather than a technological deficit. Using a qualitative desk‐study design, the study screened 61 academic records, assessed 29 studies at full text, and triangulated the retained literature with Malaysian legislation, policy documents and government statistics. The analysis identifies weaknesses across all four dimensions, including fragmented legal coverage, overlapping implementation responsibilities, uneven enforcement, the absence of operational disposal pricing and limited organic‐recovery capacity. South Korea is used as an illustrative policy‐learning benchmark to assess instrument complementarity rather than outcome transferability. The study proposes a sequenced reform package that prioritises enforceable source separation and monitoring, evaluated pay‐as‐you‐throw pilots, expanded organic‐recovery capacity and stronger cross‐jurisdictional coordination. The findings position food‐waste persistence primarily as a policy‐design and implementation problem.