The Chopstick Topic

[SheenaGreena]

ewww, I hate wooden chopsticks and they way they make your teeth feel when you chew them or brush them against your teeth

If you don't use disposable, what will you use? You'll have to take your own portable utensils with you everytime you go out to eat

[rcarter]

I remember this was a big issue in the 1980s. In response my school (ISSH in Tokyo) ordered thousands of plastic chopsticks in a portable case with an environmental message on the front. The students were suppose to start using them and selling them to friends/family. It was both a fundraiser and an attempt to start a new trend of carrying chopsticks instead of using disposable.

I guess it never took off.

[Sencha]

ewww, I hate wooden chopsticks and they way they make your teeth feel when you chew them or brush them against your teeth 

If you don't use disposable, what will you use?  You'll have to take your own portable utensils with you everytime you go out to eat

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I, in contrast, rather like wooden chopsticks, and am not usually hungry enough to resort to attempting to chew and eat my chopsticks.

Haven't there been talks for some time about the disposable chopstick issue? I wonder if anything will finally come of it now...

Edited May 13, 2006 by Sencha (log)

[SuzySushi]

Like others here, I remember the disposable chopsticks debate also came up in the 1980s, when some Japanese diners took to carrying their own pair of chopsticks to restaurants.

Nonetheless, I'm struck by comparisons to the disposable diaper debate. I remember reading, long ago, an analysis of the environmental impact of disposable diapers vs. cloth diapers (via diaper services or washed at home). The analysis found that while there was more environmental impact from disposable diapers on the use of trees and also on landfills, equally important environmental impact came from washing diapers (copious use of water, fuel to heat the water, detergents and chlorine bleach in the water -- particularly when diaper services are used).

The same type of "different" enviornmental impact is likely to come if people switch en masse from disposable wooden chopsticks to disposable bamboo chopsticks, or to plastic chopsticks that are manufactured from petrochemicals then washed again and again in hot water and detergents.

What's the solution? Eating with one's fingers, perhaps, and licking them clean?

[torakris]

a duck shaped holder made with your chopstick packet

in English

(warning PDF file)

[jeniac42]

I just tried to make the duck and, well, wow. I'm incompetent at origami. I'll have to practice, I guess!

[torakris]

Now this is cool!

Canoe made from disposable chopsticks