Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

The Olympic flame for the 2008 Beijing “Green Games” has been extinguished, but amid the reports of silver iodide missiles being shot into the sky to prevent and promote rain on demand, was something a bit more mundane: the debate over the use of disposable wooden chopsticks.

photo credit: Dan4th

As the world’s largest producer of disposable chopsticks—about 63 billion a year—China is at the forefront of the environmental brouhaha over the cheap, one-use utensils or yicixing kuaizi, as they are known to the Chinese.

In 2006, the country responded to claims of deforestation and waste caused by rampant disposable chopstick use by imposing a 5% consumption tax as well as a 30% price increase on the chopsticks. The move sent shock waves throughout Japan, the largest importer and consumer—at about 98% of the market and 30 billion pairs a day—of waribashi, as they are known in that country. The Japanese countered fears of a shortage of their beloved waribashi by declaring they could turn to cheaper (but lower quality) suppliers like Vietnam or Indonesia (something that hasn’t happened). They also cut back on indiscriminate use of the chopsticks. In convenience stores across the nation, customers were only given a pair of disposable chopsticks if they asked for them; in some stores, a nominal charge (about 4 U.S. cents) was added.

Lian Guang, founder and president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade Association in China’s Heilongjiang Province, said in a recent Wall Street Journal article that, contrary to popular belief, disposable chopsticks do not cause deforestation. In fact, disposable chopsticks were invented by the Japanese in the late nineteenth century as a way to use up wood scraps. Guang and other advocates also argue that the chopsticks, typically made from bamboo, white birch and poplar, are the products of fast-growing trees. Moreover, they point out that disposable chopsticks are cheap and convenient, making them easily available to all; hygienic, helping stem the tide of epidemics like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS); and economically beneficial, providing over 100,000 jobs in China alone.

These claims notwithstanding, the lead up to the Beijing Olympics saw Greenpeace China launch a “Say No to Disposable Chopsticks” campaign that resulted in over 300 Beijing restaurants jettisoning disposable chopsticks in favor of reusable plastic ones. It’s a campaign that has been joined by Chinese pop musicians and others throughout the country and has spearheaded a “Bring Your Own Chopsticks” (B.Y.O.C) movement urging diners to cut back on disposable chopstick use by bringing their own set of chopsticks from home.

The environmental movement against disposable chopsticks has gained momentum in other countries too. This summer in Taiwan, a country which goes through 5 to 6 billion pairs of the utensils a year, about 10,000 convenience stores and supermarket chains banned free disposable chopsticks. Even in Japan, where the tradition of waribashi is deep-rooted, the government recently approved an ambitious plan to cut refuse production by 60% and “to promote a recycling society,” which included an appeal to citizens to bring their own chopsticks while dining out. The Japanese government also plans to explore the possibility of collecting the disposable chopsticks and turning them into biofuel.

In the West, where the popularity of Asian food has skyrocketed in recent decades, there is an increasing awareness of the environmental concerns surrounding disposable chopsticks. At the vanguard of this movement is third-generation Japanese-American Donna Keiko Ozawa. Her “Waribashi Project: San Francisco,” which premiered in conjunction with United Nations World Environment Day in 2005, featured sculptures made out of 180,000 disposable chopsticks. According to Ozawa, “While also being a pan-Asian icon in modern consumerist society, waribashi, disposable chopsticks, pose a great problem to our environment through deforestation and destruction of forest habitats.”

And, while Ozawa and a growing number of others promote the B.Y.O.C. movement as part of the push to eliminate the use of disposable chopsticks, it is uncertain how many people here—and elsewhere—will ultimately choose to “take up their own sticks” in the battle to go green.

For disposable chopsticks in the news, see:

Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120243065514952215.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

National Public Radio

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19203227

Recycling International

http://www.recyclinginternational.com/search/search_result.aspx?keywords=disposable%20chopsticks

Reuters

http://search.us.reuters.com/rsearch/rcomSearch.do?blob=disposable%20chopsticks&WTmodLoc=ussrch-top-quote

World Watch: Life-Cycle Studies

http://0-web.ebscohost.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/ehost/detail?vid=15&hid=15&sid=6ab9250d-cff4-4b7b-aab9-7c4ba9d1b7f3%40sessionmgr7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=eih&AN=19247888

Inter Press Service/Global Information Network

http://0-proquest.umi.com.ignacio.usfca.edu/pqdweb?index=5&did=1146211681&SrchMode=2&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1219788560&clientId=16131

Donna Keiko Ozawa’s “Waribashi Project: San Francisco”

http://www.well.com/user/indigo/donna/waribashi/mainpage.htm

Related Entries

1. Air Conditioning vs. Rolling Windows Down: The Fuel-Efficiency Debate
2. Beijing Olympics Not Breathing Easy
3. Beijing’s Environmental Successes