With Shanghai’s World Expo now in full swing, the environment has been placed firmly at the forefront of everyone’s minds, if not also their imaginations. This creates a perfect opportunity to take stock of all things green in this great city.

The humble wooden chopstick, in use in China for over 3000 years, is an ancient cultural relic that has of late taken a real bashing from the environmental community. Wooden chopsticks are out, and the use of reusable metal or even plastic varieties has been promoted as one of the myriad of small things that individuals can do to ‘make a difference’.

Sounds right too. Chopping down all those trees to produce single-use, throwaway convenience in restaurants is now a heinous crime against mother Earth. The estimated 45 billion pairs of chopsticks used every year in China are produced from 25 million fully grown trees. It’s enough to make even the most un-eco-friendly and wasteful consumers amongst us flush bright crimson with embarrassment.

Or is it? Perhaps not. Where I come from, wood is farmed just like potatoes. Planted, looked after until maturity then harvested. Then planting begins all over again. The same happens with trees. Aren’t we getting managed forests confused with rainforests? When was the last time you used a pair of disposable chopsticks made of teak or sandalwood? The trees that end up as chopsticks come from managed, sustainable forests. After all, it would be a foolish farmer in any agricultural sector that didn’t recognise the need to replant after harvesting.

Aren’t we getting managed forests confused with rainforests?

Trees are the most natural and beautiful carbon capture and sequestration machines you are likely to find. A tree is estimated to capture and hold one ton of CO₂ over its lifetime. A tree is host to its own micro-ecosystem, supporting a myriad web of mammals, insects and birds. A tree is carbon neutral since the carbon absorbed over its life will be released if it was chopped down and burnt. A gross increase in the total number of trees over time means a net reduction in atmospheric CO₂. In 2007, China’s forests increased by over 50 thousand square kilometres. Voluntary tree planting that year in China amounted to 2 ¼ billion trees. Assuming those trees live until maturity, that’s a whopping 2 ¼ billion tons of CO₂ removed from the atmosphere. Disposable chopsticks, if not burnt, will hold on to their carbon for many years after disposal.

By switching from wood to plastic chopsticks would obliterate the wooden chopstick industry on which thousands of people’s livelihoods depend, not to mention that plastic comes mainly from the planet’s precious and non-renewable oil resources. If an alternative to disposable wooden chopsticks was needed, sustainable, farmed bamboo would serve as the perfect choice, allowing the current industry to switch its raw material and continue to operate with minimum disruption.

To sum up, the disposable chopstick isn’t the enemy of the state at all. It is an integral part of the culture and way of life in China. Environmental effort is finite, and would be better directed to other, more pressing problems that require immediate action. For now, let’s leave the disposable chopstick alone. It is not, after all, the perpetrator of crimes against the environment as some misguided idealists would have us believe. ✖

(Photography by Daniel Kwan.)