Recycling campaign spares landfill of 16 tonnes of mooncake containers

Some 54,000 mooncake boxes will not go to landfill thanks to an environmental drive to collect for recycling the metal tins and cardboard boxes that contain the traditional treat.

The Moon Cake Box Recycling 2014 campaign, that was spearheaded by the Housing Authority in July, collected 16 tonnes of discarded containers.

Mooncakes are traditional treats often given as gifts during the mid-autumn festival.

The Housing Authority set up more than 170 collection points for mooncake boxes at its headquarters at Fat Kwong Street, Kowloon; the HA Customer Service Centre in Lok Fu, Kowloon; public rental housing (PRH) estate offices; shopping centres and markets throughout the city.

While the authority described the haul as "encouraging", the number of boxes collected by the campaign has doubled in a decade. In 2004, the programme collected 26,000 boxes, weighing a total of seven tonnes.

"Thanks to the efforts of public housing tenants and our staff, the recycling activities were successfully launched, which reflected their strong support and determination on environmental protection and recycling of domestic waste," an authority spokesman said.