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Taiwan phasing out disposable chopsticks
Well, even Taiwan is now more environmentally progressive than the US.About 10,000 convenience stores in Taiwan will join an environmental push by withholding disposable chopsticks from hordes of customers used to getting them with take-out meals, Reuters reports.
From next Wednesday in Taipei, and by July 1 on the rest of the island, four convenience store chains will give out the wooden single-use chopsticks only on request. Taiwan's small restaurants also will be encouraged, with the enticement of saving money, to phase out disposable chopsticks, claiming that "conservation is getting to be mainstream" and that it shouldn't be an issue.
Conservation efforts are happening elsewhere in Asia. For example, China banned production of ultra-thin plastic bags in May and activists in Japan are pushing for a reduction of wooden chopsticks, which are already made from recycled chips. I travel with my own chopsticks anyway, so it would be a non-issue for me.
I wish conservation was "becoming mainstream" in the US. I think the minute Americans get "forced" to carry reusable chopsticks or forks for take-out lunch, there might be riots in the streets.
[via Asiaone]
Filed under: Activism, Food and Drink, Asia, Taiwan
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Baron Jun 18th 2008 8:08AM
Not that I pretend to know any of Taiwan's other environmental acts, but I hardly think that phasing out disposable chopsticks would make them, as an entire country, more environmentally progressive than us in the USA. They very well might be great compared to us in terms of their environmental polices, but again we need a bit more information than just chopsticks. Not to attack (too much!), but for some reason, many people here seem to think we are so far behind every other country in the world in every single category... Please, don't go live anywhere else or you might be sad. Also, I'd say that 90% of the places I eat use NONdisposable (i.e. they wash it, I hope it is washed anyway, when you are don) utensils and plates.