Mooncake boxes that return to earth: Hong Kong caterer introduces biodegradable packaging
Caterers are heeding calls to keep the environment in mind in their packaging of the delicacy. One has even introduced biodegradable boxes
On a warm autumn night each September, tens of thousands of people gather to gaze romantically at the moon - as a mountain of rubbish piles up.
Tonnes of mooncake tins, plastic wrappers, paper lanterns, candle residue and discarded glow sticks are among the debris discarded by revellers during one of Hong Kong's most popular festivals.
Much of the debris dumped during the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as metal mooncake packaging, isn't biodegradable and masses in landfills, adding to Hong Kong's notorious waste problem.
But some mooncake makers, heeding long-standing calls from green groups, are trying to make a difference.
This year the catering giant Maxim's is selling some 250,000 boxes of mooncakes - about a third of its output - packaged in material made from bagasse, the fibrous remnants of sugar cane after the juice has been squeezed from it.
Martin Lee, Maxim's Caterers general manager for Chinese restaurants and branded products, said the material decomposed in just four months.
