A new survey reveals that most Hong Kong residents receive more mooncakes than they want during the Mid-Autumn Festival, with nearly a quarter admitting to throwing away unopened boxes. The findings underscore a growing mismatch between the cherished custom of giving mooncakes and the reality of household waste.
A Tradition Under Strain
Mooncakes have long served as Hong Kong’s quintessential Mid-Autumn gesture — a symbol of respect, gratitude and family ties ahead of the festival, which falls on Sept. 25 this year. But a consumer survey conducted this month by Yindii, a Hong Kong-based surplus food marketplace, suggests the tradition is generating more discomfort than delight.
The digital poll of approximately 25,000 Yindii users found that 72 percent of respondents receive more mooncakes than they actually want to eat. When asked what they would prefer as a Mid-Autumn gift, just 14 percent chose a traditional box of mooncakes. Instead, 30 percent wanted a gift or cash voucher, 24 percent preferred a smaller box or fewer pastries, and 20 percent said they did not want a gift at all. Yindii has termed the gap between generous giving and tepid demand the city’s “Mooncake Paradox.”
From Unwanted Gift to Landfill
The consequences extend beyond social awkwardness. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said their household ended up with uneaten mooncakes after previous festivals, and 22 percent admitted discarding boxes that were still sealed and safe to eat.
The scale of the waste is substantial. Advocacy group Feeding Hong Kong estimates that up to 2.8 million mooncakes go uneaten in city households each year — a figure that has prompted the charity to run its annual “Mooncake Madness” collection drive, which gathers unopened surplus for redistribution to frontline charities through Sept. 18.
That seasonal glut adds to Hong Kong’s chronic food-waste problem. According to the city’s Environmental Protection Department, roughly 3,001 tonnes of food waste were sent to landfills daily in 2024, accounting for nearly 30 percent of municipal solid waste.
Why People Keep Giving Anyway
If so few people want mooncakes, why do millions continue to change hands? The answer lies in what the pastries represent rather than what they taste like.
Mooncakes function less as a treat and more as a social obligation — a way for companies to thank staff and clients, for relatives to mark the reunion festival, and for neighbors to maintain goodwill. Because the gesture matters more than the contents, households often receive duplicates from employers, relatives and friends within the same week, far outpacing what any family can realistically consume before the pastries go stale.
Yindii co-founder Mahima Rajangam Natarajan framed the problem as one of mismatched intentions, not rejection of the tradition itself. “Giving more mooncakes doesn’t necessarily make the gesture more meaningful,” she said. The real issue, she argued, 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
The survey suggests consumers are open to solutions. When asked whether they would buy good-quality, safe-to-eat surplus mooncakes from hotels, bakeries or retailers at a discount, 36 percent said yes outright and another 45 percent said they might — meaning 81 percent did not rule it out.
That openness has already created a modest secondary market. Apps like Yindii allow bakeries, hotels and cafes to sell unsold mooncakes and other food as discounted “surprise bags” instead of discarding them. The company says its Hong Kong community has rescued more than 500,000 meals in total and helped merchants recover about HK$17 million in value from food that would otherwise have gone to waste. Still, Natarajan noted that price — not just environmental appeal — is what ultimately drives shoppers to buy surplus food.
Retailers Respond with Smaller, Smarter Boxes
The market is adjusting in other ways. This year’s mooncake offerings from Hong Kong hotels and bakeries lean heavily into smaller formats: mini egg-custard boxes of four or six pieces, lantern-style tins meant for reuse, and gift sets that double as storage. Novelty collaborations, low-sugar recipes and non-mooncake alternatives — including 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 sitting unopened in kitchens across the city.
The Bigger Question
Mooncakes remain deeply embedded in how Hong Kong celebrates the Mid-Autumn Festival, and few expect the custom of giving them to disappear. But the survey results point to a shift in what generosity may need to look like going forward: smaller quantities, more flexible gift formats, and outlets for surplus stock before it becomes waste.
As Natarajan put it, the challenge for this Mid-Autumn Festival and beyond is finding a way to preserve the spirit of the tradition — reunion, appreciation, generosity — without the mounting pile of boxes nobody asked for.