The chopstick dilemma: is it possible to make the case for disposable chopsticks?

In response to my last post in which I called on a hip, Sydney café to replace their disposable chopsticks with reusable ones reader Cas had this to say:

You might want to check if the chopsticks were wood or bamboo. If they are bamboo then they are the most environmentally friendly. Think about it – what kind of impact do you think it has on the environment to produce plastic ones? (which actually have a very short lifespan). Plastic is made in factories using huge amounts of electricity and water, and plastic is made from guess what . . . OIL! There is nothing wrong with disposable wooden or paper products, providing they are from renewable resources and are then recycled afterwards. They actually have the least impact on the environment.

I have to confess I hadn’t taken the damaging environmental effects of plastic into account and she brings up a really great point. I wrote to Cas and asked her (him?) for any data/links to support what she said. Here’s what she said:

Sorry, I don’t have any direct links to data, but I do work in the product and packaging design field, so I encounter these dilemmas often and take note of findings especially as I try to design as eco-friendly products as I possibly can.

I know that bamboo is farmed, renewable, and natural. It does not require fertilizers or large amounts of water to grow. It grows fast and does not necessarily require chemicals to process. Plastic however is made purely from oil by-products and requires large amounts of water plus heat and cooling during manufacturing which also uses fossil fuels. The type of plastic that chopsticks are made from is neither recyclable nor biodegradable. It also has a very short life span – you would be surprised. Some restaurants buy new ones every few months!! So these go to landfill and stays there forever, where-as if properly governed, wooden products can be both pulped and made into other products, or mulched and used in agricultural applications. Therefore continuing a cycle of life rather than having just one life. This is key to good products.

Please don’t get me wrong – I don’t agree at all with businesses using excessive amounts of take away or disposable materials as they are only good if the waste is handled properly, but it is a common misconception that using natural products like wood is bad. Most people do not know where alternative products come from – since the influx in the 50s we have just become accustomed to plastic without considering its impact on the environment.

I decided to put her comments to one of the forests campaigners at the environmental NGO I work for. While he wouldn’t give me a definitive answer he was insistent that – from a forests point of view anyway – reusable over disposable was preferable and added:

In China the bamboo chopsticks are so cheap (2 cents or less per pair), people throw them away as garbage! It costs more to recycle them, and it uses more water and other resources to recycle them that people don’t.

He brings up a good point. In an ideal world disposable bamboo chopsticks might have minimal impact on the environment, but the infrastructure isn’t really in place right now to make that the case. At least not in China. You can’t think about products in isolation – the systems they exist in – and be that needing to change that system – is equally important.

That said, ending our addiction to oil is definitely important. But there is a solution to combine the best of both chopstick worlds. What about sustainably farmed, reusable bamboo chopsticks (and preferably recycled)?

And if you were wondering here in China I carry with me the pictured pair of chopsticks that are made of metal and sustainably sourced wood that comes from an indigenous tribe people in Papua New Guinea. They use wood cut from trees that are old and sick. (And yes, I know I’m coming off as a total new age hippie. Guess I better start working on my dreds!)