Chopsticks.

• Position: LIFE-CYCLE STUDIES

Overview

From the back roads of Yunnan to the sushi bars of New York, epicures of Asian cuisine the world over rely on chopsticks as a handy eating tool. In use since at least the Shang Dynasty (c. 1500 BCE), these slender sticks, averaging 20 centimeters long, are daily utensils in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, and common companions of rice and noodle dishes in many other countries.

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Chopsticks have been carved from cedar, bone, plastic, ivory, jade, and precious metals. But today, the disposable wooden chopstick, mass-produced from white birch, poplar, or bamboo, reigns supreme. Known as waribashi in Japan and yicixing kuaizi in China, disposable chopsticks date to the 1870s and were originally deemed a thrifty way to use up wood scraps. They became widely available in the 1980s, after technological improvements sped up the production process. The Chinese government promoted their use to fight disease, and across Asia interest in the one-use sticks skyrocketed as more people ate out.

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Closing the Loop

Every day, hundreds of millions of chopsticks are used once and then tossed. While restaurants in some countries wash and restock them, in Japan most people "don't want a chopstick that is used by someone else," explained Yuki Komayima, former president of the Canadian Chopstick Manufacturing Company, in the early 1990s.

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But times are changing. Some Japanese producers now recycle the used sticks into items like particleboard, paper, and facial tissue. And in October, China issued new standards requiring that chopsticks be made only from birch, poplar, and other widely planted trees, or carved from fast-growing bamboo. The rules ban the use of certain chemicals and limit the water content of bamboo sticks to 10 percent to prevent mold.

Some Japanese consumers are swearing off warabashi altogether, instead carrying a set of reusable lacquer or stainless steel sticks as part of the country's "Let's Carry Our Own Chopsticks" campaign. In China, Shanghai imposed a...