Excessive packaging and environmental protection

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, environmentalists began a campaign to reduce the waste of mooncake packaging last week. They urged the pastry manufacturers to simply package mooncakes and hope that consumers would consider buying moon cakes from an environmental perspective.

In other societies, lobbying for “green” packaging has been very active, but in Chinese society, this is likely to be a very difficult fight. Here, the issue of over-packaging consumer goods—especially food, alcohol, and nutritional products—is closely related to the custom of giving gifts.

The custom of giving gifts during the holiday season has long been and it is considered as a way to strengthen family relationships and social connections. Therefore, during this special holiday season, the significance of moon cakes has gone far beyond its original meaning of mere snacks.

In Chinese, rituals are often misunderstood as gifts. In a food-rich society like this, many people are worried that their cholesterol will be high. Sending too many moon cakes will eventually damage the health of your loved ones. Therefore, fancy packaging has also become a way to conceal a small amount.

However, the over-packaging problem is very serious in mainland China. Last year, some manufacturers used a wooden box to pack a moon cake weighing 900 grams. The price was as high as 6,800 yuan. The price is too far off. However, the box of this large moon cake also contains four beautiful cutlery, a bottle of wine, and a box of tea.

In spite of this, this is still not the most expensive boxed gift moon cake on the Beijing market, because the price of some boxed gift moon cake is as high as 95,000 yuan.

In Taiwan, the over-packaging campaign launched since the 1990s has just begun. In 1992, a poll conducted by the environmental protection department showed that 92% of the people vowed to resist wasted packaging. In South Korea, the law stipulates that the value of packaging must not exceed 30% of the value of the product. Similarly, mainland China has also banned the over-packing of moon cakes. A regulation passed last year limits the cost of mooncake packaging to less than 25% of the monthly price of mooncakes; the vacancy of single-grain packaging must not exceed 35% of the volume of single mooncakes.

However, legislation can only help prevent over-packaging by manufacturers. The root of the problem lies in the custom of giving gifts. To make "green" packaging occupy the market, environmental activists must thoroughly explore the concept of Chinese consumers. Only a fundamental change in the understanding of the role of moon cakes in society can solve this problem once and for all.

The gifts must take into account the limited resources of the earth and fulfill the social responsibilities for sustainable development.

(Author: Kitty Poon, Hong Kong Polytechnic University researcher) Kitty Pan Nanhua Morning