Overly glitzy packing is leading to the logging of millions of trees every year in China and wrapping up corruption, a political advisor has warned.

Song Xiaohua, who is attending the annual session of China's top political advisory body, called for effective measures to curb over-packing, saying the practice is a huge waste of already inadequate resources.

Paper, rubber, glass and steel, which are all important materials for industrial production and daily life, have been lavishly consumed by the packaging industry, Song said.

"China produces about 1.2 billion shirts a year, and 800 million are packed in paper boxes, which consume roughly 240,000 tons of paper and lead to the loss of 1.68 million trees with a diameter of 10 centimeters," he said.

Packaging also generates a lot of garbage, most of which is not degradable, he added.

Beijing produces three million tons of garbage a year, 20 percent of which comes from excessive wrapping. The city spends about one billion yuan (US$128 million) every year treating the garbage.

Over-packing has also fostered wasteful consumption habits and become a cover-up for some businessmen to gain staggering profits, as wrapping sometimes makes up 70 percent of the total cost of a commodity, Song said.

"It can even wrap up corruption," he said, noting luxuriously packed festival gifts are now often used to bribe officials.

There have been reports that exorbitant mooncake packages containing "special accessories" such as wine or fine watches became popular gifts during the Mid-Autumn Festival time.

Two extreme cases have caught the country's attention: one involved a box of mooncakes containing a gold Buddha worth 180,000 yuan, while the other was a box with the key to a new apartment worth 310,000 yuan.

It's possible that people buy them to bribe officials.