A new survey of 25,000 Hong Kong residents found that 72% receive more mooncakes than they can eat during the Mid-Autumn Festival, with nearly a quarter admitting they throw away sealed, perfectly edible boxes, exposing a growing disconnect between the tradition’s symbolic weight and its environmental cost. The findings, released by surplus food marketplace Yindii ahead of the Sept. 25 holiday, quantify what many households have long suspected: the ritual of giving mooncakes has shifted from a gesture of honor to a source of excess waste.
The Gift Nobody Wants
Conducted digitally among Yindii users in September 2026, the survey paints a stark picture of mismatched expectations. Only 14% of respondents named a traditional box of mooncakes as their preferred Mid-Autumn gift. By contrast, 30% said they would rather receive a gift or cash voucher, 24% wanted smaller boxes or fewer pastries, and 20% said they’d prefer no gift at all.
Yindii has labeled this divide Hong Kong’s “Mooncake Paradox” — a situation where generosity floods the market with products that most recipients actively avoid.
Waste Piles Up
The environmental toll is measurable. Nearly 80% of households reported ending past festivals with uneaten mooncakes, and 22% said they had discarded sealed, safe-to-eat boxes. Advocacy group Feeding Hong Kong estimates that 2.8 million mooncakes go uneaten in the city annually, prompting its yearly “Mooncake Madness” collection drive, which accepts unopened surplus through Sept. 18 for redistribution to frontline charities.
These seasonal leftovers compound Hong Kong’s broader food-waste crisis. According to the Environmental Protection Department, the city sent roughly 3,001 tonnes of food waste to landfills daily in 2024, accounting for nearly 30% of municipal solid waste.
Why Giving Persists
If few people want mooncakes, why do they keep circulating by the millions? The answer lies in social obligation rather than culinary preference. Companies give them to staff and clients. Relatives exchange them to mark the reunion festival. Neighbors and colleagues use them to maintain goodwill. Because the act of giving matters more than the product itself, households regularly receive multiple boxes from different sources within the same week — far exceeding what any family can consume before the pastries go stale.
Yindii co-founder Mahima Rajangam Natarajan described the problem as a collision of good intentions. “Giving more mooncakes doesn’t necessarily make the gesture more meaningful,” she said, noting that the core issue is the gap between how many are given, how many people actually want, and what happens to the surplus.
A Shift in the Market
Consumers appear ready for change. When asked if they would buy good-quality, safe-to-eat surplus mooncakes from hotels or bakeries at a discount, 36% said yes and another 45% said maybe — meaning 81% did not rule it out.
That openness has already created a modest secondary market. Apps like Yindii allow bakeries and hotels to sell unsold mooncakes as discounted “surprise bags” instead of discarding them. The company reports rescuing more than 500,000 meals in Hong Kong and helping merchants recover about HK$17 million in value from food that would otherwise have gone to waste. Natarajan acknowledged, however, that price — not environmental concern alone — drives most purchases of surplus food.
Retailers are also adapting. This year’s offerings from Hong Kong hotels and bakeries emphasize smaller portions, mini boxes, and reusable packaging — from lantern-style tins to four-piece egg-custard sets. Novelty collaborations, low-sugar recipes, and non-mooncake alternatives such as chocolates, palmiers, and tea sets have multiplied, giving gift-givers options that respect the tradition without adding to the kitchen stockpile.
Preserving the Spirit
Mooncakes remain a bedrock of Hong Kong’s Mid-Autumn Festival, and few expect the custom to vanish. But the survey suggests that “generosity” may need to evolve — toward smaller quantities, more flexible formats, and better channels for surplus before it becomes waste.
As Natarajan put it, the challenge for this festival and beyond is honoring the tradition’s core values — reunion, appreciation, gratitude — without the growing pile of boxes nobody asked for.