Comments on: Eco headline of the week: Disposable chopstick addiction destroying China's forests

By: ifreecarve

ifreecarve — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:44:00 +0000

Stainless steel chopsticks are in my backpack, and I take them everywhere. They fit everywhere you can put a pencil. Also, they make some that unscrew into two halves. Some people recommend roughing the tips with sandpaper to get better grip, but I haven’t had an issue. Anyway, it’s a better system than the disposable utensils because — environmentalism aside — they’re not flimsy.

By: gloriana232

gloriana232 — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:09:00 +0000

Chinese people have spoons….

By: gloriana232

gloriana232 — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 23:08:00 +0000

I don’t think this is a problem of reusable wooden or plastic chopsticks being difficult or impossible to make (weird tone in some comments). It seems like it’s just cheaper and faster for many restaurants to give out disposables rather than constantly wash reusables. I don’t really get how fancy Asian restaurants still get away with disposable chopsticks whereas a restaurant at a similar price point would never get away with disposable forks and knives.

Plastic ones aren’t that hard to use. Just practise more. I grew up with them, so I prefer the perfectly round Chinese style, and eschew the tapered Japanese style (difficult to pinch properly) and the flat Korean type (just … no).

By: Promethean Sky

Promethean Sky — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 19:12:00 +0000

At least the oil used in plastic forks goes back underground.

By: Frank Lee Scarlett

Frank Lee Scarlett — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 05:34:00 +0000

I just bought a pack of 5 pair at Kamei, a restaurant supply place near me. The chopsticks are finished and they came in an unnecessarily elaborate box. However, I happen to have a daily use for the box (storage of pens and drawing pencils), so I chose this package for a reason.

And they cost $3.50. Judging from the longevity of previous sets, I should get about 5+ years of daily use out of these. Certainly there are solutions to be found for this problem. They’re manufactured in Japan FWIW.

I think the larger problem is re-conceptualizing the use of disposable chopsticks in millions of casual and take-away eateries. Discounts for people who bring their own pair?

By: James Penrose

James Penrose — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:07:00 +0000

Greenpeace has shown a tendency to act like PETA at times and wander off into la-la land in the pursuit of its “higher truths” by shedding the burden of concrete facts.

By: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:42:00 +0000

One of the main benefits of disposable chopsticks is that they are made and packed into sealed sachets with moist towelettes in a sterile environment. And by ‘sterile environment’ I mean that they are packed in the bike sheds behind our school without access to running water.

By: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:36:00 +0000

I remember reading about how disposable chopsticks were causing deforestation in China in National Geographic over 20 years ago.

By: Jeremiah Blatz

Jeremiah Blatz — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:31:00 +0000

1) I am skeptical of anything Greenpeace puts out
2) This sounds like an excellent form of carbon sequestration

By: Jeremiah Blatz

Jeremiah Blatz — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:28:00 +0000

1) Each tree makes half a set of chopsticks
2) What is this, a forest for ants?

By: John Hoffman

John Hoffman — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:43:00 +0000

About forty years ago, I was with the USAF in Thailand. The street vendors re-used their chopsticks by dipping them into the hot cooking oil befor re-issuing them. Of course, I always kept my shots up to date(G)!

By: kenmce

kenmce — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:39:00 +0000

China has been largely deforested for centuries. It traces back to the invention of paper and having a bureaucratic government.

By: Paul Renault

Paul Renault — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:48:00 +0000

They might be big trees if they make the chopsticks the same way toothpicks are made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFV2mqRIog0&t=2m38s

By: Jerril

Jerril — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:07:00 +0000

Disposable chopsticks are unvarnished, unsanded, porous, and made of soft wood. They get soggy and splinter and cannot be washed.

You can make perfectly re-usable chopsticks from wood, as you’ve noticed. They’re more expensive to make :P

By: Jerril

Jerril — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:06:00 +0000

Cutting trees faster than replacement trees can grow causes deforestation. Planting replacement trees that take 10-20 years before they can be harvested doesn’t do diddly squat if you’re cutting down trees at 5-10 times that rate.

By: knockwurst

knockwurst — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:05:00 +0000

There’s a movement in Japan called “My Hashi”, which encourages people to have a nice set of chopsticks in a container that they can carry with them so they don’t need to use disposable chopsticks. It’s a nice solution.

By: CH

CH — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:59:00 +0000

They use stainless steel disposable chopsticks???

By: AnthonyC

AnthonyC — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:51:00 +0000

Also, finishing. When you buy reusable chopsticks they’re clearly coated or stained or whatever. The ones you get from most Chinese restaurants that you need to break apart are not.

By: Chris Hogan

Chris Hogan — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:42:00 +0000

“…and Greenpeace estimates…”

Stopped reading right there. Greenpeace have previous form for ‘lies in the service of a greater truth’.

“It does not matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.”
— Dr. Patrick Moore, President of Greenpeace

I’m not saying that there’s not a deforestation problem in China, but its an ongoing one. Heck, there are extensive reports of deforestation correlating to flooding and soil erosion going back to the 16th century or so.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 09:04:00 +0000

And they’re almost as hard to use as enameled chopsticks.

By: Alissa Mower Clough

Alissa Mower Clough — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 08:34:00 +0000

This is clearly fark. I heard something like this about fifteen years ago.

Note the scare-word “addiction” –do they mean that people become chemically bonded to chopsticks? Do they start with one pair, and then have to use hundreds per day? One new set every bite? — to what otherwise would be a ho-hum article.

What does seem to happen is that a) every few years there’s a “chopstick crisis”, where Asia’s billion chopstick users threaten sustainable forestry. This leads to a reuse/recycle fad, which means that the sale of wood and bamboo plummets. The foresters cry poverty, disposables are touted as being modern and healthy, and the cycle is complete.

Heck, I even heard this story in a childrens’ book.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 06:58:00 +0000

These things have been around since the middle of the last century.

By: Shinkuhadoken

Shinkuhadoken — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 05:53:00 +0000

In the land where you can find almost anything being made out of cheap plastic, I’ve often wondered why no one started making a killing with plastic chopsticks? Of course, I’m not sure that’s any better for the environment than killing forests, but it does seem like the next logical step.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 05:48:00 +0000

Bamboo only takes a year to reach full height though

That’s not true. Depending on the species and the conditions, it might take a decade or two to reach full height.

…it’s regarded a weed because of how it spreads and strangles other plant life.

Running bamboos may do that, but clumping bamboos stay where they are. And even running ones won’t spread in bad conditions.

By: Coal Miki-Restall

Coal Miki-Restall — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 05:21:00 +0000

Bamboo only takes a year to reach full height though, and it’s regarded a weed because of how it spreads and strangles other plant life. It’s about the most sustainable source of wood there is.

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

there was an article a year or three back about how using bamboo was leading to loss of bamboo forests, because the demand is still much higher than the regrowth rate.

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 03:58:00 +0000

A large percentage of them are already made out of bamboo. There was an article a year or three back about disposable chopsticks leading to a significant loss of bamboo forests.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 02:03:00 +0000

You don’t suppose it’s meant to say square kilometers, do you?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:35:00 +0000

There are reusable ones and disposable ones. Probably has to do with the tightness of the grain.

By: Steve Laudig

Steve Laudig — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 23:55:00 +0000

I live in china. It is my impression that most of the disposable chopsticks I see are dried and treated bamboo. This strikes me as a ‘thinly’ researched press release sort of story and I’ll treat its information as such. But I’ll ask my ‘native’ sources the next time I go out for dinner.