I was pleasantly surprised when greeted by a pair of non-disposable chopsticks during my first visit in 2009 to my favourite kaiten sushi restaurant in Causeway Bay. I have been bringing my own chopsticks since, ashamedly, only a few months ago when I finally heeded the warnings about how demands for disposable chopsticks are accelerating deforestation which in turn worsens global warming.
A few days later I visited for the first time a newly opened salad place in Central. While at checkout, the cashier explained to me how they encourage customers to purchase and re-use their own bowls by offering 2 free toppings to returning customers with their own bowls. They all sounded “green” enough to me, especially when my bowl was actually given to me for free under their opening promotion, until my order for a soup was handed to me in a disposable plastic container. Then, as if the container wasn’t counterintutive enough, she offered me disposable utensils and a plastic bag to carry my food upstairs as I had chosen to dine in. I kindly declined both because I happened to have brought my own of both. This shop touts its root from New York. Since its Hong Kong website has only contact information, I visited the chain’s New York website and found the concept of “re-usable” bowls is indeed a very big deal to them because it is about “making environmentally conscious decisions”. Whilst I have never visited any of their New York establishments, my own experience at their Central shop is more like helping them to save costs in cleaning bowls than helping the environment.
Eating with my own utensils
But we don’t have to look far to see socially responsible companies making “true” environmentally conscious decisions. The same company in Hong Kong that operates the sushi restaurant above also operates a chain of coffee shop, also imported from the US, in Hong Kong. A shop near my office has been storing a tumbler I bought from them for almost 2 years. Every time I fill up my tumbler, they take HK$3 off my bill. Did I mention they also wash my tumbler for free?
My tumbler
To quote Nobel laureate Al Gore, “The climate crisis presents us with an inconvenient truth. It means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives.” I don’t mind the inconvenience of carrying my own bag and eating utensils but I do mind carrying a bowl for a company that does not truly practise “making environmentally conscious decisions”.
An edited version of the above appeared as “Environmentally conscious’ claims sometimes miss the mark” in the “Letters to the Editor” section of South China Morning Post today. The salad bar in Central is Just Salad. The coffee chain is Starbucks. The kaiten sushi chain is sen-ryo 千両. Both Starbucks and sen-ryo in Hong Kong are operated by Maxim’s.