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Over 100 volunteers of the All-China Environment Federation (ACEF) were busy sending proposals to consumers at 53 large shops in Beijing over the weekend, persuading them not to buy moon cakes with luxurious packaging.

"Sir, I hope you will join our campaign called 'more simple packaging, deeper love'," said a university volunteer to a consumer, "Moon cake is a traditional Chinese food given to friends and relatives to express sincere love, but the complicated and over-colorful packaging doesn't indicate this tender and sincere love."

The volunteer told this to many consumers at the shops, and handed out questionnaires on consumers' opinions about making "greener" packaging for moon cakes.

Initiated by the ACEF, a top environmental non-government organization, and Beijing Daoxiangcun Food Co Ltd, a cake production giant in China, the activity "Simple packaging, deeper love" was launched last week, in a bid to raise public awareness, as well as moon cake producers' consciousness of environmental protection.

Li Hengyuan, deputy secretary-general of the ACEF, said: "Moon cake expresses hearty affection and strong love to relatives and friends during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on every 15th day of the eighth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar."

But the meaning of the cake has been "changed" in recent years, as it has become a gift to bribe clients or government officials.

So, despite the emotion of the gift, the cake is evaluated in terms of its packaging.

"The amount of paper wasted each year is a serious issue," Li noted.

Statistics from the China Baking Products and Sweet Food Industry Association show that China's moon cake production expenses are up to 2.5 billion yuan (US$312.5 million) every year.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival which falls on the 15th of the eighth month of the lunar year, garbage from the packaging of moon cakes can account for 20 percent of consumer waste in China, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

"When people show tender emotion to their relatives or friends, they should take more care to think of nature and the environment," Li said.

He said packaging for 10 million boxes of moon cakes uses 400 to 600 trees, with a diameter of 10 centimeters.

If the packaging is not recycled, it will place a strong burden on the garbage disposal sector in the nation.

"A total of 500 million kilograms of moon cakes consume 6,000 trees for packaging," Cheng Wenhua, vice-president of the Daoxiangcun Group said, hoping the public would pay greater attention to this, amid China's threatening desertification process.

"Saying no to luxurious packaging for moon cakes is pressing," say many environmentalists with ACEF.

Moreover, expensive ingredients of the cake, such as edible bird's nests and shark's fin is harming ecology.

The highest price for a box of moon cakes could exceed 10,000 yuan (US$1,250).

This squandering behavior is also not in accordance to the nation's prudent tradition, Li said.

National standard

Last September, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the National Standardization Management Committee jointly worked out a national standard for moon cake production.

The standard was enforced this June.

According to the standard, the packaging box of each one kilogram of moon cakes should not exceed 900 cubic centimeters.

The cost for packaging should be below 15 percent of the cost of the moon cake.

This year, the luxurious moon cakes with colorful packaging, coupled with imported wines and tea are less visible in the shops, but people can still find them on sale in some hotels.

In a hotel situated in Yusha Road of Haikou, Hainan Province, the price of a box of moon cakes with edible bird's nests and shark's fin is 888 yuan (US$111). The packaging for the moon cake is also very expensive.

According to the China Food Industry Association, until now, there exists no standard for the ingredients of moon cake. Companies rely on the utilization of substances such as edible bird's nests to reap huge profits.

(China Daily September 18, 2006)