Last year in China, 57 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks were used and thrown away – and 3.8 million trees were cut down in order to produce them. Greenpeace wanted to bring awareness to this subject, encouraging people to pledge in no longer using wooden chopsticks. So they created a 'Disposable Forest' in a bustling Beijing shopping area.
After the collection of 80,000 pairs of used disposable chopsticks and with the help of 200 volunteers, a forest of chopstick trees was born. As people passed by admiring the beautifully crafted yet slightly spooky forest, 'permanent-use' chopsticks were handed out for free. During the first two weeks over 100,000 people pledged to stop using them on the Greenpeace online mini-site. Other forms of media spread the word and soon restaurants too were making the switch to permanent-use chopsticks, resulting in 2,000 restaurants across Beijing replacing disposable with reusable.
The Green Room Verdict: We think this is pretty neat, what an effective way to communicate with the public about the consumption of chopsticks, conveying the problem on a scale that makes an impact. Would be interesting what we could do with the amount of paper takeaway coffee cups that are consumed each year in New Zealand/Western world – imagine how many of those we chew through?
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