Chopticks to be taxed in China

chopsticks.jpg
This photo’s from a classic post from my esteemed blog-buddy Bingfeng; a must-read

Finally, China’s going to impose a tax on chopsticks and other wood products in an effort to let a few trees in China survive. (Can you imagine, billions and billions of used chopsticks being trashed each and every day, what a huge pile that must be?)

China will slap a tax on chopsticks and a range of goods ranging from yachts to petrol in a bid to save trees and protect the environment.

Plans to impose a 5 percent consumption tax on both disposable wooden chopsticks and wooden floor panels would help curb the plundering of timber resources and efforts to protect the environment, the Ministry of Finance said.

Disposable chopsticks used up 1.3 million cubic meters of timber each year, depleting the country’s forests, the ministry said.

How about banning disposable wood chopsticks altogether? Bingfeng, in the post cited above, says he and his wife now have a policy of taking their own chopsticks with them. (And while we’re at it, how about disposable plastic bottles and all things styrofoam.)

The Discussion: 8 Comments

Umm … In Taiwan nearly all disposable chopsticks are made out of bamboo. I would assume that that is the case in China. Given that bamboo grows ridiculously fast, I don’t think there are any serious environmental problems. Am I missing something here?

March 22, 2006 @ 1:18 am | Comment

The article says the wooden chopsticks business is denuding China’s forests of trees, not bamboo… Is there a Chopsticks PhD in the audience?

March 22, 2006 @ 1:19 am | Comment

All the disposable chopsticks I see round here are wooden, not bamboo.

I also seem to remember reading that tons of wood are exported from China to Japan to make disposable chopsticks, too.

March 22, 2006 @ 3:10 am | Comment

All the disposable chopsticks I see round here are wooden, not bamboo.

I also seem to remember reading that tons of wood are exported from China to Japan to make disposable chopsticks, too.

March 22, 2006 @ 3:11 am | Comment

You may be right – but I was quite surprised to find out what was bamboo and what wasn’t … take a look here:
http://tinyurl.com/gfc5k

March 22, 2006 @ 3:18 am | Comment

It isn’t that simple. Presumably you wash these non-disposable chopsticks occasionally, using valuable soap, water, as well as gas for heating that water. Disposables are actually easier on the environment, especially when you consider that the wooden ones are usually made from blocks that are odd-shaped and useless for normal commercial work, and so would otherwise just be ground up into sawdust and burned at the logging yard.

March 22, 2006 @ 8:45 pm | Comment

And I would add that if it is indeed true that virgin forests are being “plundered” to make disposable chopsticks, the solution is introducing modern forestry and land management techniques to China, not giving the practice an implicit stamp of approval by taxing it (thereby giving the government an interest in seeing this poor practice continue).

March 22, 2006 @ 9:29 pm | Comment

Look at the picture!

I just hope those used chopsticks are really disposed of, not revamped (with thick bleach perhaps).

March 27, 2006 @ 12:55 pm | Comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.