When you get takeout, leave disposable chopsticks at the restaurant, and use reusable chopsticks at home instead. You can find reusable options made out of plastic, wood, stainless steel or porcelain.
Purchasing reusable metal skewers is always recommended in lieu of wooden disposable skewers to cut down on the amount of waste generated.
China now produces over 57 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks per year. The demand for these disposable chopsticks results in the harvest of 3.8 million trees annually. Disposable chopsticks continue to be produced at increasing rates in spite of the loss of 30 percent of China’s forests in the last 50 years. Read more from the Huffington Post.
Perhaps the most eco-friendly chopstick is one that you can eat. Japanese designer Nobuhiko Arikawa of the company Rice-Design created edible chopsticks and other tableware out of baked flour, water, and salt, a combination known as sailor’s hardtack.
