We must stop wasting mooncakes
I am writing in response to the letter 'Mooncakes thrown away untouched' (South China Morning Post, September 19). I agree that it's wasteful to dispose of mooncakes without even tasting them.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a meaningful and important tradition, and mooncakes are a part of it. We have a wide range of mooncakes to choose from; in fact, there are even ice-cream mooncakes on sale.
Unfortunately during the holiday, many people buy a lot more mooncakes than they can actually consume. Besides the mooncakes that have been left untouched, their plastic packaging can damage the environment.
We need to change some of our habits. Instead of just throwing unwanted mooncakes away, people could donate them to the poor.
Likewise, mooncake manufacturers should avoid wrapping their products in non-recyclable materials.
We need to stop being so wasteful.
Chan Siu-fai, King Ling College
From the Editor
Thank you for your letter, Siu-fai. Every year, we have the same outcry about how lots of mooncakes are simply wasted. To make matters worse, their 'showy' packaging fills up our landfills even more. We as buyers need to say 'no' because until we stop buying too many mooncakes the problem will persist.
In some countries, people tell their friends and family what they want. For example, when someone dies, relatives would ask for donations to be made to a charity, instead of sending flowers.
We could do something similar in Hong Kong. In fact, internet savvy students should be able to motivate people with a Facebook site, where you urge them to promise not to buy mooncakes unnecessarily. Instead, they could ask their friends and family to donate the money to a useful cause.
To see such wastage is heart-breaking. It would be much better to send that money to help people dying of starvation in Africa.
Susan, Editor
