Green Chopsticks

Solutions

Confronting the problems creating by throwaway chopsticks is both a simple and a complex matter. It is simple because all we have to do is stop using the things, and replace them with reuseable chopsticks. It is complex because we have to figure out a way to get everyone to do this.

Many people in the past have called for an end to the use of these throwaways. "Avoiding disposable chopsticks" is featured on various lists of things to do to protect the environment. But these calls have generally come as side notes to other discussions, and there hasn't yet been a concerted effort to end the use of waribashi.

There have been many instances in which people and groups have stopping using disposable chopsticks. A number of businesses and governmental organizations in Japan and elsewhere have stopped using waribashi in their cafeterias, saving thousands of pairs of chopsticks every year. Student groups in China have also convinced their cafeterias to stop using throwaway chopsticks. Some governments in Asia have restricted the use of disposables in public restaurants.

Some efforts have also been made to recycle used waribashi, and while this doesn't address the grave problems presented by logging, it does help with the waste issue, as well as making visible what a huge quantity of wood is wasted in the production of disposable chopsticks.

This is also brought to mind in the work of a number of artists who collect used chopsticks and incorporate them in their work. Some of the results are beautiful abstract sculptures, others are deliberate political commentary on the depletion of forests.