Opinion | When packaging in Hong Kong meant sago or rattan, before plastic bag nightmare began
Home-grown consumerist nonsense aside, reliable packing material has been an essential component of any well-developed market economy for millennia; without dependable packaging, spoilage of fresh products, and damage of fragile items, would make many traded goods uneconomical. For centuries, packing materials were imported into China to enable high-value items to be exported with minimal breakages.