Turning Chopsticks Back To Trees

Though most people think that chopsticks are made from scrap wood, they are actually made from trees - Not just any trees, but Aspens, sometimes also known as the 'mother of forests' because they protect young Conifer trees and provide a rich habitat for birds and mammals. And, we are not talking chopping down a few trees, but millions of them!

It is estimated that the world's biggest user, China cuts down 3.8 million trees annually, to manufacture the over 5.7 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks that the country goes through each year.

To try make people aware of the destruction they are causing with this one small habit, environmental activist company Greenpeace, paired up with advertisement agency Ogilvy & Mather, and came up with this brilliant idea - Turn the used chopsticks back into trees. While it was a great idea, it was dirty work - for it involved visiting all these Chinese restaurants and collecting used chopsticks from the trash.

However, thanks to 200 hard-working volunteers from 20 Beijing Universities, they managed to gather and clean 80,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks, within just three weeks. Then, under the guidance of Chinese designer, Xu Yinhai, they set about building the trees.

On December 20th, four, 5-ft. tall chopstick trees were planted at Beijing's most popular mall, The Place. Over the year, the trees will be moved around and displayed at universities and other prominent public places. Greenpeace is hoping they will be able to convince people all over China to switch to re-usable chopsticks and help save the country's scarce natural resources.

What a great idea! Now if they had only stuck in some fortune cookies for the leaves, life would have been perfect!

Sources:odditycentral.com,china.org.cn, greenpeace.org/eastasia