“I wish to share with readers my experiences with unsold yet clean food which could be made available to people in need.

Pret A Manger is known for its donation of unsold sandwiches to charities.

I learned from its website that it is seeking charities to collect food from those shops that currently do not have anyone going to pick it up. Based on my own experience, I assume there is a geographical mismatching problem.

As small as Hong Kong is, those who are in need do not happen to be near the areas of excess. When I volunteered my time at Crossroads for 10 months in 2007, I would drive to Ma On Shan every Tuesday morning from my home in Causeway Bay to pick up unsold pastries and breads from La Rose Noire bakery and deliver them to the Crossroads Foundation in Tuen Mun as part of a lunch for volunteers like me. There were two bread-runs a week then and the other one was performed by a full-time volunteer every Thursday.

You see Starbucks and Pacific Coffee outlets all over Hong Kong. They serve drinks and food and much of the food is pre-packed just like at Pret A Manger.

Nowadays, companies are expected to be environmentally-friendly and socially responsible. I was, therefore, interested to hear a Pacific Coffee barista complaining to a customer about the extra work involved in ensuring that all unsold foods was disposed of at the end of each day. So I e-mailed Starbucks and Pacific Coffee to inquire about their unsold food policy.

While Starbucks replied within a day, Pacific Coffee did not get back to me. Starbucks said it had to get rid of the food after it had passed its shelf life for “hygiene and safety reasons”, which I think is fair enough. I am assuming it has exhausted all other responsible solutions.

Thousands of people in Hong Kong are, on a daily basis, either deprived of basic food supplies or need supplementary food in order to get a full meal. It seems to me Hong Kong does not lack willing givers but lacks centralised efforts to co-ordinate the flow from the point of excess to where it is needed. “

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.

Visit on 29th August, 2007:

Visit on 31st August, 2007:

Thank you once again for all of your kind thoughts.

Tags: stray cats, street animals, pet, cat, kitten, rescue, neuter, euthanize, abandoned, volunteer, help, hong kong, abuse, china, 貓隻領域護理計劃, 愛護動物協會, 義工, 流浪貓

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Tags: stray, cats, animals, pets, abandoned, street, hong kong, kitten, neuter, volunteer, euthanize, euthanise, rescue

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If you have missed An Inconvenient Truth on both the big screen and DVD, don’t miss this one. While An Inconvenient Truth has revealed the "truth" about global warming, The 11th Hour is supposed to offer us answers and how we as individuals can change at the 11th hour to create a sustainable future. I hope it will be shown in Hong Kong soon.

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Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers arrived just now from Amazon. When I checked two weeks ago, Commercial Press had never heard about this book and Page One had only one paperback copy in Festival Walk. And they didn’t plan to restock it. The Weather Makers tells the history of climate change and looks at solutions where individuals can help to reverse the change. The book had already been credited with triggering the debate that caused the Australian government to clarify its stance on the science behind global warming. Australia had even named Tim Flannery Australian of the Year 2007 for his contribution to making Australian better appreciate and understand the environment. I came to learn about Tim Flannery the other day while I was reading an interview of Richard Branson. Richard Branson spoke highly of Tim Flannery as an environmentalist. Tim Flannery is one of 5 judges of Richard Branson’s Earth Challenge.

Tags: global warming, climate change, richard branson, tim flannery, earth challenge

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http://www.hkbws.org.hk/bfs/ – about Black-faced Spoonbill

http://www.wwf.org.hk/eng/maipo/ – all you want to know about Mai Po presented by WWF Hong Kong

http://www.charliesbirdblog.com/~charlie/maipo06sept05/maipo06sept05.html – a blogger’s journal on his trip to Mai Po Marshes

http://www.wetlandpark.com/en/index.asp – official website of Hong Kong Wetland Park

Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by the non-stop developments and constructions going on in the city, I forget Hong Kong has its quiet nature side too. And it isn’t that far away. Mai Po is far more accessible today than it used to be. I vaguely remember visited it once during high school. It has just faded away in my mind through the years. Coming back from my last trip to Kansai, instead of admiring how the Japanese have conserved their history, I should start being more aware of this city that I live and call home. Without awareness, there won’t be conservation. Without conservation, our next generation will be robbed of non-material things to admire and learn, leaving them more materialistic than our generation. All that I have been thinking of lately is watching 3D Harry Potter at Megabox. I am making Hong Kong Wetland Park this weekend’s destination.

花落誰家:

鐵塔以下青翠山嶺 化作了石油站
鐵塔以上一對鸚鵡 也要各自逃難
鐵塔以下都市璀璨 根本不懂感嘆
花瓣吹散 誰在乎誰著眼

聽說發達只有興建 蓋夠八十層吧
聽說過活只有改變 變到再沒童話
聽說進步黑臉琵鷺 盡管犧牲一下
牠一張臉 已給你記憶風化

當櫻花迫於遷往悄靜月球
天高海闊珍惜不夠
雛菊都給安葬以後
換到繁榮誰來內疚
只許燈飾普照地球
不許花園開墾幾畝
鮮花死了 至感慨愛得不夠

這個四月相對乾燥 吻到有裂痕吧
這個八月天氣很冷 再見快樂炎夏
聖誕晚上感到炎熱 盡管燈飾優雅
當天飄雪 你可會有些牽掛

當櫻花迫於遷往悄靜月球
天高海闊珍惜不夠
繽紛煙花閃照過後
望見層層浮雲漸厚
開採山丘斬去木頭
花開花落不可拯救
儘管擁有 怕一切變得罕有
(即使擁吻 怕空氣已不足夠)

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Your article “Movers & savers”, published on December 28, has since served as my guide on how to minimise waste in Hong Kong. The organisations listed in the sidebar “Turn your trash into treasure”, along with a summary of what each one collects, is what socially responsible journalism is about, in my opinion – especially at a time when the community is beginning to take environmental issues seriously.

Reading the article inspired me to procrastinate no longer in dealing with the “waste” I had built up – either by buying things I didn’t really need or by upgrading to newer models.

I have since made a couple of donations to Caritas. Although the goods were in fine working order, they were impossible to sell and would have ended up in a landfill if I had thrown them away. With Caritas, I know computer items that cannot be reused will be recycled. Electronic appliances are taken care of in the same way by the St James’ charity. Since reading the article, I have also begun to donate my time as a volunteer at Crossroads.

Donating can sometimes be frustrating, though. I have been trying to donate a TV to St James’ since the beginning of the year without success. The first time I called, they said their collection fleet was busy and they could arrange a pick-up only after the Lunar New Year. While waiting, I managed to add two amplifiers and a DVD player to my intended donation. When I called again two weeks ago, they told me that, even though their website puts my items among their top 10 most in need, none was on their most-wanted list, and so they couldn’t pick them up.

Refrigerators turn out to be in demand instead. Since I have an unused mini-fridge, I happily offered that, and my whole lot has become eligible for pick-up again. But I still haven’t got a definite appointment. They’ve promised to call me early next month. I’ll just have to take their word that they will.

RODERICK KAR, Tai Hang