Jan 17, 2011: Chop Chopstick Tree

China uses (and discards), either 45 or 57 Billion (depending on who's talking) pairs of disposable chopsticks every year.
That's about 23 million trees, and China ranks 139th in the world for forests, so they can't afford it.
Greenpeace took 80,000 pair of used chopsticks, cleaned them, and built four trees to catch the attention of the city folks.
Then for good measure, they chopped one down. Seems like setting a bad example, to me.



When someone stopped to look, they were given a pair of reusable chopsticks.
They were encouraged to use them when eating away from home...
and stop acting like imperialist running dogs.

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I prefer quality, washable chopsticks. I have both decorative wood and plastic pairs at home and at work. However, when out in restaurants across the US, we still are given disposable wooden chopsticks, usually bamboo. Since I am not aware of a bamboo shortage, I don't really give a hoot what Greenpeace has to say about it.

C'mon ^^^, don't you want a beautiful forest of ugly dead tree wannabe's, to brighten up your city?

Great idea, Greenpeace - now let's ask all westerners to carry around a set of reusable cutlery for use when eating away from home.

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Originally Posted by Antimatter now let's ask all westerners to carry around a set of reusable cutlery for use when eating away from home.

I vote for spork.

I carry a set of (HelloKitty) chopsticks and a hobo cutlery set in my briefcase. The Chinese place (the cheap one) we order from doesn't provide chopsticks, and sometimes I want to be able to cut my food from the Italian delivery place or that I bring from home ... the nuthouse doesn't have plastic knives, and the forks are quite wobbly and melt into interesting, unuseful shapes when exposed to even mildly hot food.

I also use hippie bags whilst shopping. I get the plastic only when I'm running short on trash can liners in the apt. I feel better about reusing the store bags than I do buying single-purpose trash bags for the little cans in the bathrooms.

Chopsticks are good for poking hobos in the eye. Since the technological advances in utensils (The Age of Enbitenment), producing such wonders as the fork, I prefer to stab my food rather than watch it fall all over the floor.

I don't use tiger bone for toothpicks anymore, either.

My point is not that no westerners would carry cutlery, my point is that most westerners wouldn't like to be told to do so, and that we shouldn'ẗ expect the Chinese to be any different with regard to this.

Especially not on an airplane.

Especially especially not on an airplane on a treadmill.