Hong Kongers 'waste more food than neighbours' Adrian Wan Oct 26, 2009 Email to friend Print a copy Bookmark and Share More than 80 per cent of Hongkongers do not finish their meals and 63 per cent admit they waste food, leaving the city with the most leftovers among neighbouring regions, a green group says. Greeners Action has been working with restaurants to promote its Save Food Project, which on the first Wednesday of every month offers diners a HK$1 rebate if they ask for less rice with a meal. About 170 restaurants across the city have joined the project. In August, the group surveyed 349 people who had just finished their meals on their eating habits and awareness of the project. Sixty-five per cent of respondents said they were unaware of the project, and half of those who did know about it rarely or never asked for less rice. Of those who did not know, 91 per cent said they supported it after being told about it and 41 per cent said the project made them want to try out participating restaurants. When asked whether they usually finished their meals, 19 per cent said they always did, with the remaining 81 per cent saying they did so usually, sometimes or never. This was a small improvement on the 84 per cent at the beginning of the year, although the situation was still unsatisfactory, said Man Yip Chui-man, the group's project officer. Sixty-three per cent of respondents said they had a habit of wasting food, a slight decrease from 65 per cent at the beginning of the year. But despite the reduction, Yip said the government should be on the alert. On average, each Hongkonger produces 500 grams of food waste a day, she said. In Singapore the figure is 300 grams and in Taiwan it is 240 grams, making Hong Kong the top producer of leftovers among its neighbours. Yip said the new recycling centre in Siu Ho Wan on Lantau Island would not be able to handle the approximately 3,000 tonnes of food waste produced in homes each day. The centre will start operating in 2015 and will only treat 200 tonnes of food waste generated by the commercial and industrial sectors, or 6 per cent of the total. It would not touch on the bigger problem of domestic leftovers. "The government should seek other methods to counter the problem, because all restaurants dump food waste in landfills, which puts land resources under pressure, not to mention the fact that they give off biogas, a harmful greenhouse gas," Yip said. The group suggested that restaurants introduce meals in varying sizes at different prices to cater to different appetites.
wow im actually pretty surprised coz i always thought chin people were ubbber 'haaan' and save leftover foods for the nxt day and stuff....i can kinda see why they leave their food though....coz hk people have ubbber busy lives its hard for them to eat a full meal...mebe..?
no it's just chinese people tend to eat very little and that's why a lot of chinese people are rele slim therefore they leave a lot of food and if it isn't like a dim sum restaurant people don't always take it home and it depends on some of the food. some food they can't rele take home and eat the next day and i guess with like rice and stuff it's not of much value so they don't take that home therefore leaving a lot of food. cos usually people will eat the meat and all the other bits first.
this seems to happen in more modern place such as usa, canada, japan, ... people are afraid of diseases when food is touch by other, drop onto ground(floor), leave overtime, and order too much food in restaurants. Poor people eat everything while they still are good.
The rich forgot what being poor is like and the younger generations never experienced the hardship their parents/grandparents went through. We are the spoiled generation?
well, I think chinese people who immigrated over to other countries are the ones who save up on everything as they have to deal with much more hardships adapting to the new environment with little to rely on.
No wonder they look less obese than Chinese americans. There is also so much pressure from the media as evident in TVB shows to stay thin. I don't think its a matter of saving money but really a matter of keeping a healthy diet.
