Hong Kong’s Mid-Autumn Festival tradition of exchanging boxes of mooncakes—long regarded as a symbol of respect, gratitude and family bonds—has created a mounting crisis of excess and landfill waste, according to a new consumer survey that shows 72% of residents receive more pastries than they actually want to eat. The study, conducted in September 2026 by the Hong Kong-based surplus food marketplace Yindii among roughly 25,000 users, quantifies what many locals have long suspected: the ritual has become an obligation rather than a treat.
A Tradition Under Strain
The survey, released ahead of this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival on September 25, found that only 14% of respondents would choose a traditional box of mooncakes as their ideal holiday gift. Instead, 30% preferred a gift or cash voucher, 24% wanted a smaller box or fewer pastries, and 20% said they didn’t want any gift at all. The gap between generous giving and tepid demand is what Yindii calls the city’s “Mooncake Paradox.”
From Unwanted Gift to Landfill
The environmental cost is stark. Nearly 80% of respondents reported having uneaten mooncakes leftover from past festivals, and 22% admitted discarding boxes that were still sealed and safe to eat. Advocacy group Feeding Hong Kong estimates that up to 2.8 million mooncakes go uneaten every year—a volume that has prompted the charity to run its annual “Mooncake Madness” collection drive through September 18 to redistribute unopened surplus to frontline charities.
This seasonal waste exacerbates Hong Kong’s broader food-waste crisis. According to data from the city’s Environmental Protection Department cited in the Yindii report, roughly 3,001 tonnes of food waste were sent to landfills daily in 2024, accounting for nearly 30% of municipal solid waste.
Why People Keep Giving Anyway
If so few people want mooncakes, why do millions still exchange them? The answer lies in social obligation rather than taste. Mooncakes serve as a gesture for companies thanking staff and clients, for families celebrating reunion, and for neighbors maintaining goodwill. Because the act of giving matters more than the pastry itself, households often receive multiple boxes from employers, relatives and friends within a single week—far more than any family can consume before the pastries go stale.
“Giving more mooncakes doesn’t necessarily make the gesture more meaningful,” said Yindii co-founder Mahima Rajangam Natarajan. “The real issue lies in the gap between how many are given, how many people actually want, and what happens to the surplus.”
A Market for “Rescued” Mooncakes
There is hope for change. The survey found that 36% of respondents would buy good-quality, safe-to-eat surplus mooncakes at a discount, and another 45% said they might—meaning 81% did not rule it out. That openness has fueled a small but growing secondary market. Apps like Yindii allow bakeries, hotels and cafés to sell unsold mooncakes and other food as discounted “surprise bags” instead of throwing them away. The company reports that its Hong Kong community has rescued more than 500,000 meals and helped merchants recover about HK$17 million in value from food that would otherwise have been wasted. Still, Natarajan noted that price, not just environmental concern, is the main driver for shoppers.
Retailers Respond With Smaller, Smarter Boxes
The market is adjusting. This year’s mooncake offerings from Hong Kong hotels and bakeries emphasize smaller formats, mini portions and reusable packaging—from boxes of four or six mini egg-custard mooncakes to lantern-style tins designed to be kept. Novelty collaborations, low-sugar recipes and non-mooncake alternatives such as chocolate, palmiers and tea sets have also multiplied, giving gift-givers ways to mark the occasion without adding to the stockpile of traditional lotus-paste boxes.
The Bigger Question
Mooncakes remain deeply rooted in Hong Kong’s Mid-Autumn Festival, and few expect the custom of giving them to disappear. But the survey results point to a shift in what “generosity” might need to look like: smaller quantities, more flexible gift formats, and outlets for surplus before it becomes waste.
“The challenge for this Mid-Autumn Festival and beyond,” Natarajan said, “is finding a way to preserve the spirit of the tradition—reunion, appreciation, generosity—without the mounting pile of boxes nobody asked for.”