Hong Kong is one of the world's great seafood cities. The evening wet markets, the dai pai dongs serving steamed fish with ginger and spring onion, the Cantonese ritual of choosing your meal live from a tank — seafood is woven into the fabric of daily life here in a way that's hard to overstate.

But there's a number attached to that love affair that's worth sitting with: 65 kilograms.

This is a practical guide to picking compostable food packaging that does what it says — without paying premium prices for greenwashed alternatives or building a sustainability story on materials that fail in practice.

If you run a restaurant in Hong Kong in 2026, sustainability has moved from optional to operational. Sixty-three percent of HK diners actively seek out sustainable food options. Forty-seven percent prioritise organic. Mandatory MSW waste charging has been deferred but remains on the policy roadmap. And the operators who got serious about waste reduction over the past three years are the ones reporting both lower disposal costs and higher customer loyalty.

Hong Kong has quietly become one of Asia's most interesting plant-based food markets. Per HKTDC's 2025 research, 63% of Hong Kong consumers actively seek plant-based options at least sometimes, and 47% prioritise organic foods. The category isn't niche anymore — it's mainstream, broadly normalised, and shaping menus across the price spectrum.

Of all the sustainability trends crowding the F&B headlines in 2026, upcycled food is the one quietly winning. Per Tastewise's trend tracking, it's the fastest-growing category in zero-waste food — and unlike a lot of buzzwords, it has a clean, useful definition and a real climate case behind it.

Here's what it is, why it works, and what's actually worth trying.

If you've heard about food rescue apps and assumed it sounded slightly too good to be true — half-price meals, climate impact, and a feel-good moment in the same transaction — here's the honest version: yes, that's broadly what's on offer, and there's a clear reason it works.

The word "leftover" does a lot of damage. It suggests something tired, picked-over, second-tier. The half-eaten plate. The thing nobody wanted.

That's not what surplus food is.

Here's an uncomfortable fact: the average household throws out roughly a third of the food it buys. In Hong Kong, that works out to around 71 kilograms per person per year — and roughly HK$1,700 of food, dollar for dollar, ending up in the bin.

The good news is that most household food waste is driven by a small number of fixable habits. You don't need a composter, a vacuum sealer, or a degree in sustainability. You need twelve small changes, and they'll save you money the same week you start.

Every single day in Hong Kong, about 3,300 tonnes of food ends up in landfill. That's the weight of more than 200 double-decker buses. It's also the largest single category of municipal solid waste the city produces — more than plastic, more than paper, more than glass.

We’re excited to share that we’ve teamed up with EATON HK to mark one of the biggest days of the year in the sustainability calendar. For the first time, CHOMP’s The Rescued Feast concept will be held at Terrible Baby for a daytime brunch buffet from 12pm to 3pm on 26 April 2026. We can’t wait to see you there!

This World Vegan Day, explore how eating plant-based and reducing food waste go hand in hand in building a sustainable future. A vegan diet can cut your carbon footprint by up to 73%, but when food is wasted, those benefits disappear. Through CHOMP — Hong Kong’s leading food-saving app — you can rescue surplus vegan meals, support local vendors, and help fight climate change.

You’ve just finished dinner — the table’s full, your stomach’s happy, and there’s that half bowl of rice still sitting there. “It’s just a little,” you think, as it slips into the bin. But here’s the thing: in Hong Kong, every little bit adds up — fast. Behind every tossed-out dumpling or forgotten veggie lies a bigger story about where our waste really goes… and how we can change it.

So, you’ve just navigated the thrilling, overwhelming, and utterly fantastic aisles of a Hong Kong supermarket. Your cart is full of treasures, from Japanese kit-kats to local sauces. But now, you’re home, staring at a package covered in numbers and a few dates. What does it all mean?

We’re excited to share that we have expanded our services into the pet sector, through a collaboration with one of the city’s largest pet retailers - Whiskers N Paws. Two Whiskers N Paws retail locations in Ap Lei Chau and Lohas Park, will now be available via the CHOMP app!

We’ve launched a new content series titled “UNBINNED” - a bold, unfiltered series, fronted by CHOMP’s Founder & CEO Carla Martinesi. The series was sparked by a powerful conversation between entrepreneur Simon Squibb and Carla, where he asked Carla “what’s your dream?”.