Students punished for leftovers in canteens

A high school claims to be saving about 5,000 kilograms of food every day after it started linking the weight of leftovers to scholarships in Leiyang, Hunan province.

Under a rule introduced at Hunan Zhengyuan School, students are disqualified for scholarships if they waste a daily average of more than 100 grams of food in a month.

The school posts a notice praising those students who have been efficient with food and criticizes those who waste it.

In addition, a student who wastes can be fined 100 yuan ($14.29).

Using electronic scales placed at the doors of the school's canteens, designated students weigh the leftovers — which are collected from a whole class —after the meal. They hand over their summaries and data to the school's moral education department every week.

The top five non-wasting students every month are singled out for praise.

Luo Xiangyun, headmaster of the school, said a special regulation that has been in place since 2015 aims to avoid and reduce food waste at the school.

"The school subscribes to the concept that it's glorious to save and shameful to waste," Luo said.

A cook surnamed Liang at the school said he was sad when he found that students had been wasting more than 500 kilograms of food every meal in recent years in one of the school's six canteens.

The school now saves as much as 5,000 kilograms of food every day, Liang said.

The school, has more than 18,000 teachers and students.