Green Chopsticks

Forests are being cut down to make throw-away chopsticks What a terrible and unecessary waste! There are easy alternatives to throwaway chopsticks. Disposable chopsticks, or waribashi, are symptomatic of the problems of our throwaway cultures, entailing logging of old-growth forests on the one hand, and increasing piles of waste on the other.

Over the years, various people and groups have advocated replacing disposable chopsticks with reusuable ones. The Green Chopstick Project is an effort to focus this advocacy, encouraging the use of reusable chopsticks and the preservation of the forests, through education and other programs.

The purpose of this website is to provide information about disposable chopsticks and the ecological impact that they have on temperate and tropical forests. This site also has a reading room of relevant articles and studies on these issues. It also provides information about ways that people are beginning to work towards alternatives, though art, group resolutions, and personal actions.

• Take action by reusing a personal pair of chopsticks. Encourage your friends to do the same. You can even make your own chopsticks
• Encourage your favorite restaurants to provide reuseable chopsticks.
• Find out more about the issues. This site has information about chopsticks and more.

This web site is a work in progress. I am still in the process of collecting information. The site will expand & change periodically. Check back occasionally, or send me an email and ask to be added to my chopsticks list, and I will let you know when I add significant material to the site.

(Last updated Sat, Oct 11, 2003)