Earth Day 2022: Consider the chopstick

Chopsticks are everywhere.

A third of the global population uses them every single day. The rest of the population fumbles (and masters) them at restaurant meals. All those chopsticks add up — mostly in landfills.

About 80 billion pairs of chopsticks are thrown away every year. To make that massive number of chopsticks, activists in China have documented the destruction of 100 acres per day of aspen, birch, and bamboo.

In Vancouver, Canada, entrepreneur Felix Bock wants to do something about all those chopsticks. Something useful. Something artistic.

His new startup, ChopValue, transforms sticky single-use chopsticks into furniture.

His raw material is not in short supply. According to Bock, his company collects 350,000 used chopsticks from 300 restaurants every week. He cleans them, compresses them, and turns them into bookshelves, cutting boards, art, and desks. He estimates that he has transformed 50 million pairs of chopsticks since 2016.

Here is how it all works.

The wood is harvested in Asia and made into chopsticks. The sticks travel 6,000 miles to Vancouver, where they end up in restaurants and are used once.

The ChopValue staff collects the sticks. They coat them in a water-based resin and sterilize them at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for five hours, according to Atlas Obscura.

After that, the sticks are sorted and sent to a hydraulic machine than breaks them down into composite wood. They are sanded, polished, and lacquered.

It takes more than 10,000 chopsticks to make a desk.