Kwytza Kraft is a company that makes household products from recycled, single use chopsticks, which is a big waste problem, particularly in China. It is estimated that 25 million trees and bamboo plants are used annually in single-use chopstick manufacturing in China. Kwytza Kraft collects chopsticks from restaurants, santizes and pressure cleans them, and then turns them into everything from lampshades to furniture. I think that if I saved and cleaned all the disposable chopsticks I used in a few months, I might have enough to construct a lamp shade, or perhaps a cd rack, how about you?
chopstick craft challenge
Previous post: making-do
Next post: Quilt Artist of the Week: Valerie S. Goodwin
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
that’s really amazing. i was wondering about things like that (and popsicle sticks), because you’d have the food in them still.
i also just recently read about the rise of people in asia bringing their own chopsticks around. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/01/bring_your_own.php
here in japan, people at work and kids at school bring their own chopsticks with them.
but certainly at restaurants, you see alot of disposable chopsticks!
That’s really interesting, it’s great that people have started bringing their own chopsticks places. Now if only we could find something to make with all the milliions of plastic forks and knives that get used in North America every day, which are probably a lot worse for the environment because they are plastic! Or get people to bring their own cutlery with them!
My neighborhood grocery has biodegradable plastic ware for their salad bar. It’s cool that they don’t charge extra for it. I’ve been meaning to do a time lapse experiment on them to see how long it takes for degredation to start.