Rant: rotten luck
Olivia Rosenman
An orchard's worth of ornamental citrus trees rotting in overflowing landfills couldn't be a worse way to start a new year.
A local environmental group estimated that Hong Kong will have discarded about 40,000 potted citrus plants - enough to fill 60 double-decker buses - following this Lunar New Year. Rather than the good fortune they are meant to symbolise, the waste of healthy plants seems more a sign of the thoughtless consumption that characterises most holidays around the world; a recent survey found that of the 50 million Christmas trees bought every year in the United States, 30 million end up in landfills. Call me a Grinch, but I find such reckless extravagance incomprehensible.
The mandarin and the kumquat are native to Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, and China is now the world's biggest producer. In 2012, the country produced some 19.1 million tonnes of kumquats, mandarins and related citrus fruits. A large mandarin provides more than half the recommended daily intake of vitamin C and almost a third of vitamin A. Studies have linked the fruit to a reduction in the risks of developing certain cancers.