Mid-Autumn Mortification

Hong Kongers are a wasteful bunch, according to an environmental protection group survey.

During the 2010 Mid-Autumn Festival people threw away more than 2 million mooncakes, enough to cover 25 basketball courts. They also discarded, on average, 10 uncooked steaks, 11 sausages, and 10 meatballs left over from barbeques.

That adds up to a whopping 481 tones of food that could have been saved and consumed later or given to charitable organisations for those less fortunate. But in Hong Kong it's easier to throw things out than to plan and preserve. How hard is it to pack meat in a cooler with ice packs to keep it from spoiling, or failing that, cook up everything at the barbeque and then bring the leftovers home to eat the next day?

It's difficult to fathom how people can justify whining about inflation and the rising cost of groceries when they pull stunts like this.

Or perhaps not; this year's Mid-Autumn festival saw more than 73 tonnes of garbage left behind at beaches and public parks, and increase from 2010. It's typical behaviour, the old 'someone else will clean it up' mentality.

If folks would stop for just a moment to think they would be ashamed of wasting food while others go hungry.

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