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)