1000 Flowers for the Planet - #591 Avoid Disposable Chopsticks

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #591 Avoid Disposable Chopsticks

According to Washingtonpost.com (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/03/14/chinas-disposable-chopstick-addiction-is-destroying-its-forests/) China uses 20 million trees each year to feed the country's disposable chopstick habit. There is growing concern that China will have destroyed all its natural forests within 10 years. Greenpeace are so concerned about the issue they have devoted a whole campaign to the banning of disposable chopsticks – see more at http://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/campaigns/forests/work/protecting-china-forests/. Added to that are concerns by the Chinese themselves that disposable chopsticks could have health risks (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/feature/news-feature/Disposable-chopsticks-hazardous-to-health/shdaily.shtml) due to manufacturing practices. If you read these articles you may certainly be encouraged to abandon the practice of using disposable chopsticks in your country, if not simply because of suspected health concerns, then certainly because of the loss of natural forests. If China continues to use its resources wantonly, where will they turn when there are no trees left to cut down? Where will they expect to obtain the resources they require to make their product? And pay attention to the fact that we are only talking about one single wood product – there are thousands more products made from wood globally. It should be considered a type of madness to steam ahead without any thought for the future. Ten years is mind-blowing. Even if we considered this an exaggeration and multiplied it by 5, would 50 years still be an acceptable time frame to use up all one’s resources? No!

Say “NO” to disposable chopsticks.