This year's Mid-Autumn Festival fell on September 10, which was a bit earlier than usual. Most mooncake brands started the their promotion campaign earlier in July before to boost the sales of mooncakes, vouchers and mooncake gift boxes for personal consumption or as gifts. FRRC launched the annual Mooncake Recovery Programme 4 weeks earlier this year too. Apart from the collection point at FRRC, 9 organizations joined our program this year to collect surplus mooncakes from their staff members, clients or students. We learnt from our experience and called for mooncake donation before Mid-Autumn, so that the mooncakes could be passed to people in need in time.
FRRC recovered more than 11,000 pieces of mooncakes this year, which marks the most significant recovery rate in our brief history. Among them, only 26% of the mooncakes were collected before the Mid-Autumn Festival. We would like to thank the organizations and citizens who have participated as a support to community service. In addition to the mooncakes being distributed to the registered beneficiaries of FRRC, we distributed more than 5,000 mooncakes to two District Council offices so as to let more people to share the joy of the Festival.
Reducing food waste is the major focus of FRRC, yet we strived to be as eco-conscious as possible in our mooncake collection and distribution routine. For instance, we did encourage food receivers to bring their own bag or reusable containers during mooncake distribution, and the mooncake boxes were reserved for recycling. This year we collected more than 450 mooncake boxes. Among them, 27% were tin cans, more than 70% were cardboards and the remaining 3% were composed of non-recyclable materials.
From the point of recycling perspective, some of cardboard mooncake boxes contained electronic light parts, metal or plastic materials, which could not simply be dropped into the recycling bins. Hence, we deliberately separated these parts from the cardboard mooncake packaging with the aid of different tools. The sorted materials were then being sent to the mobile collection point of GREEN@COMMUNITY in Lei Muk Shue.
Compared with cardboard and tins, some of the mooncake brands produced luxury mooncake boxes with non-recyclable materials. In the end, mooncake boxes could possibly become beautiful pieces of garbage. The manufacturers were responsible to produce recyclable mooncake boxes and packages such that customers could sort and recycle efficiently and quickly.
Due to the pandemic's impact, one of the mooncake brands withdrew their participation in the trade fair, whereas the mooncake sales of the other mooncake brand were unsatisfactory. They donated more than 1,700 mooncakes to us before the Mid-Autumn Festival. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, another mooncake brand donated more than 3,000 mooncakes in one go, and the enquiry calls lasted even after mooncake recovery program ended. The solid festive sense had placed an unspoken “time limit” on the mooncakes, as once the festival is over, they are no longer desired and end up at the recycling centre. In manufacturing and retailing holiday food, it is best to research market demand and sales trends before executing any production plan to ensure that production can meet annual demand without waste. In addition, many public donors mentioned that "the mooncakes were gifted and simply unable to finish", which shows that the habit of excessive gifting still exists nowadays. We believe this can be easily solved by asking about recipients' preferences before gifting, so that there won't be too many leftovers. Food banks and recycling centres should not be relied upon to take up excess production. After all, the best thing to do is to reduce waste at the source.
Last but not least, we sincerely hope that no more “surplus mooncake mountain” would appear again in FRRC or other food recycling centers in the future. Compared with fancy mooncakes, fruits, red pockets or cash vouchers are environmentally friendly & sustainable options. The essence of the Mid-Autumn Festival traditions should lie in our souls and heart, where families and friends gather to revel in festivities about feasting on mooncakes, moon gazing with gratitude and appreciating the value of food. That’s what a perfect Mid-Autumn Festival is meant to be.
Light-emitting electronic parts, metal and plastic from the cardboard mooncake packaging were taken out for recycling
Some of the parts were hard to be taken out with bare hands. Tools were needed and that has made recycling more difficult
An example of luxury mooncake boxes that were made with non-recyclable materials
