An estimated 45 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks were disposed of in China in 2006, at a cost to the environment of about 25 million trees.
Posted by envirostats on Tuesday, August 21, 2007
There is now a call to abandon use of wooden chopsticks, or maybe even bring one’s own, in China. The Chinese government imposed a 5% consumption tax on wooden chopsticks in April, 2007.
China is also a major exporter of chopsticks, with Japan its largest trading partner. Despite boasting the world’s highest forest coverage at 69%, Japan imports at least 90% of 25 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks it consumes every year. That’s about 127 million people throwing out 200 pairs of chopsticks each because they hand out chopsticks without asking at virtually every Japanese restaurant! Those figure is damning considering the population of Japan is nowhere near half the population of China but that’s like a pair every second day per person! Now there’s also news from PhysOrg.com the Japanese wants to recycle the chopsticks for biofuel use since Japan has practially no natural energy on its own. Good idea except it might suggest to the public the chopsticks habit is acceptable or maybe even environmentally sustainable or friendly as nothing would seem to go to waste when the original wood could be better served for other purposes to begin with. [Envirostats author]
5,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks were saved every day in the two major government canteens in Shenzhen when they stopped the practice on June 5, World Environment Day, in 2007, saving at least 1.8 million pairs of chopsticks every year, along with about 120,000 yuan (US$15,000) for local taxpayers.
- Headline statistic by Bian Jiang, Secretary-General of China Cuisine Association (CCA), Japan info and quote were both in China.org.cn
- Shenzhen story from China.org.cn
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 9:07 am
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