Netizens campaign against food waste to welcome Spring Festival

INTRO

Speaking of an end to extravagance...An estimated 70 percent of garbage in China is food waste.

But a new online campaign against food waste is gaining momentum in China, calling for people to take uneaten leftovers home, after banquets.

And with Spring Festival - the country's biggest holiday - fast approaching, doggy bags could be the most fashionable way to celebrate, this year.

Waste not, want not, so the saying goes...

Now, a new anti food waste campaign is taking China by storm online ahead of the upcoming Spring Festival... when most of the Chinese hold family or company banquets.

Dubbed "eating up your dishes," the movement comes after many netizens were outraged by a photo slideshow of extravagant banquets, posted on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo...

Which shows plates of untouched food tossed into the trash in the southern Chinese boomtown of Guangzhou.

The images stand in stark contrast to the last photo in the series...

Showing 70-year-old Wang Yizhong, a farmer in poverty-stricken Gansu Province in northwest China who can only afford meat, 10 times a year.

The People's Daily's official Sina Weibo account echoed the call for frugality, inviting more people to join the anti-waste movement.

Statistics show China wastes 50 million tonnes of grain a year, accounting for a tenth of its total grain output.

While in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the country's poorest provinces, about 5 million people received government food provisions in 2012...

Prompting many to say, it's time to trim banquets, this New Year.

And the campaign is proving popular - even restaurants have joined in.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) Restaurant manager:

"We'll give suggestions to customers on how many dishes to order. We'll remind them if they order too many. Most customers have taken the leftovers away."

Mr. Ji comes here for lunch with five other people. They've ordered five dishes.

SOUNDBITE(CHINESE) MR JI, Customer:

"I fully support the campaign. Wasting food is wrong. Although the life of the Chinese has been improved, we still have no reason to waste. We should set a good example for our children."

The campaign echoes the central government's calls for an end to extravagance amongst officials - setting an example from the top...

Last week, the disciplinary arm of the Communist Party of China promised severe punishment for those who abuse public funds with lavish banquets and tours.

Regulators say officials, should cut back... After China's newly released Gini co-efficient revealed it as the world' most unequal society, earlier this month.

Yuan Longping, a renowned agriculture scientist, even suggests the government move to criminalize food waste.

In an interview with China Central Television, Yuan said scientists' hard work to improve harvests, is being undermined by the food tossed from tables, across the country...

And his message seems to have spread... Forwarded more than 16,000 times on Weibo - the country's biggest microblog.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) QUAN GUOHONG, Restaurant manager:

"Many have canceled their banquets with our restaurant this year. Some had been booked by government organs. In the past, we were always fully booked."

While some restaurants in Beijing have begun to serve half as much, in the hope of avoiding more waste, this year.