On September 5, the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the Standards
Administration of China (SAC) published a national compulsory
standard regulating the packaging of moon cakes, eaten and given as
gifts around this Sunday's
Mid-Autumn Festival.
They stipulated that packaging costs should account for no more
than 25 percent of factory price; moon cakes should make up at
least 65 percent of volume; and the average space between moon
cakes and the inside of the box should be no more than
2.5cm.?
The regulation will come into force from June 1 next year, and
is in response to concern over wasteful packaging that peaks each
Mid-Autumn Festival, the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, as
increasingly elaborate and multilayered wrappings and extra gifts
are used.
Packaging materials, like rosewood and crystal, can be much more
expensive than the moon cakes themselves, and wine, imported
cigarettes, premium tea and rare ginseng are also sometimes
included.
Each 10 million moon cake boxes have been estimated to use up
millions of 10cm-diameter trees, making excess packaging an obvious
threat to the environment.
"In China, moon cakes, health products, tea and cosmetics are
the worst areas for excess packaging," said Zhuang Yingjie,
secretary-general of the Shanghai Packaging Technology Association,
according to Xinhua News Agency on July 15.
Of the 3 million tons of rubbish produced in Beijing every year,
packaging accounts for 830,000 tons, 600,000 tons of which are
biodegradable. Wrapping makes up 30 percent of the country's annual
solid waste.
Wang Weiping, a senior engineer at Beijing Municipal
Administration Commission, said packaging waste has increased
markedly in the capital, accounting for the greater part of
household waste and costing 150 yuan (US$19) per ton of garbage to
deal with.
According to a survey by Shanghai Confectionery Professional
Association, the city produced 14,000 tons of moon cakes last year,
with production value of over 1.2 billion yuan (US$148
million).
"Not all packaging is wasteful or undesirable," Zhuang said, "It
protects products from damage during transportation and delivery,
provides detailed product information, and can add value to the
product and promote sales."
In Shanghai, the Confectionery Professional Association
collaborated with Shanghai Packaging Technology Association,
Shanghai Cuisine Association, Shanghai Food Association and
Shanghai Tourism Association to solve the problem of excess
packaging, resulting in measures adopted and implemented by moon
cake manufactures there on March 20.
"Deluxe moon cake packaging will be greatly reduced during this
year's Mid-Autumn Festival", said a Shanghai Food Association
representative.
Moon cakes are round, dense pastries with ground lotus or bean
paste fillings and sometimes egg yolks and other sweet and savory
ingredients.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Yunxing September 12, 2005)
