China: Shaanxi bans one-off chopsticks to protect forest
Copyright 2001 Business Daily Update
June 6, 2001
Shaanxi Province in northwest China has banned the production, selling and use of one-off wood chopsticks, starting last Friday, to protect local forest resources.
Those who continue to produce, sell and use one-off chopsticks after the issue of the ban will be punished severely.
Shaanxi is the first province in China to ban one-off wood chopsticks, which consume a large amount of wood.
Advertisements promoting the use of environment-friendly chopsticks and related disinfection facilities can be seen everywhere in Xi'an, the provincial capital, following the issue of the ban.
Using chopsticks to have a meal started more than 3,500 years ago in China. One-off chopsticks appeared in the country only@than two decades ago.
Usually, more than one million pairs of one-off wood chopsticks are used daily at nearly 10,000 restaurants in Xi'an, and most of them are not recycled for other purposes. The price of a pair of one-off chopsticks is only one-tenth the price of chopsticks which are used repeatedly.
The ban is widely supported by both sellers and users of one- off wood chopsticks.
Mr. Han, who sells the products for years, said that banning such chopsticks to save trees is necessary though this would result in an income drop of 200 yuan daily.
Shi Jing, an employee at a high-tech company, said that "I began to use one-off chopsticks for the sake of hygiene but I didn 't expect they have led to the loss of forest resources. I will never them. Maybe I can save several big trees in a few years."
Statistics show that a total of 25 million trees are cut in China for making 45 billion pairs of one-off chopsticks every year.
Shaanxi has worked out a plan to control soil erosion in an area of 100,000 square kilometers, and return more than one million hectares of reclaimed land to forest and pastures within 12 years.
The province banned commercial felling of natural forest last year.