Unlimited California rolls and salmon sashimi: that's what draws Lam Chi-ying and her friends to the city's 'all-you-can-eat' sushi joints. The 18-year-old tries her best to tuck in but a few pieces of sushi invariably remain on the plate when she walks out with a bloated stomach. 'There's always the temptation to order more than I can eat to get value for money,' Lam says.
Although Hong Kong is often touted as a gourmet's paradise, it's also becoming known for wasting food and critics are campaigning to reverse the trend.
Environmental Protection Department (EPD) statistics show that a third of the 9,300 tonnes of municipal rubbish dumped in our landfills daily is food waste - more than double the average US figure of 12 per cent. Not only that, we're throwing out much more than we used to. Hong Kong's population increased 2.3 per cent in the past five years. Yet the amount of food waste has doubled in that period, says EPD principal environmental protection officer Lui Ping-hon.
Some of that waste comprises spoiled food and kitchen trimmings, but a large portion is food that could have been eaten. Critics say that throwing out so much food is reprehensible when a child starves to death every five seconds and 854 million people worldwide suffer hunger and malnutrition. 'Hong Kong people don't treasure food,' says Michelle Law Man-suet of the Green Student Council.
'Their awareness of food waste is very poor.'
A survey last year by the council found that 83 per cent of the 1,000 people polled left large portions of their lunch. Of these, 35 per cent discarded between 30 and 60 per cent of the food, and nine per cent ditched almost two-thirds of their lunch. 'Some say they didn't eat the food because it didn't taste good. But the majority - 69 per cent - said the portions were too big,' says Law.