Chopsticks to China = coal to Newcastle?

[jtbell]

You be the judge...

Georgia's hottest export: Chopsticks!

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

How can China and Japan not have enough wood? Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth.

 

[turbo]

How can China and Japan not have enough wood? Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth.

Wow! Hard to see how a US company can achieve that kind of market penetration.

 

[Evo]

How can China and Japan not have enough wood? Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth.

I guess they prefer hardwood chopsticks. Go figure.

 

[Kurdt]

A lot of restaurants I know are using plastic chopsticks. They're reusable.

 

[turbo]

It's tough to see how real premium hardwoods like rock maple could get into the chopstick market, unless it's a status thing (conspicuous consumption). As Greg said, bamboo grows SO fast that it's a no-brainer for disposable utensils.

 

[AlephZero]

How can China and Japan not have enough wood? Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth.

In China, an estimated 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are produced annually. This adds up to 1.66 million cubic metres of timber or 25 million fully grown trees every year.

It that's correct, it's about one tree per year per 50 people. That's a lot of trees.

 

[dlgoff]

It's tough to see how real premium hardwoods like rock maple could get into the chopstick market, unless it's a status thing (conspicuous consumption). As Greg said, bamboo grows SO fast that it's a no-brainer for disposable utensils.

I'm thinking maybe I should get into the business with Maclura pomifera, commonly called Osage-orange....

And if not chopsticks, then these:

 

[rhody]

I guess they prefer hardwood chopsticks. Go figure.

Does that mean they reuse them ? Amazing things can happen when you find an itch that no one has scratched before, eh...

Rhody...

 

[Evo]

Is the reason for the disposable chopsticks all of the independent street food vendor stalls? We use disposable cutlery here. But why wouldn't bamboo be an option?

Edit: weird, bamboo chopsticks are too costly.

But start doing the math and the disposable chopstick, made largely from birch and poplar (and, less so, from bamboo, because of its higher cost) begins to look deeply menacing — an environmental disaster not to be taken lightly. Begin with China's 1.3 billion people. In one year, they go through roughly 45 billion pairs of the throwaway utensils; that averages out to nearly 130 million pairs of chopsticks a day. (The export market accounts for 18 billion pairs annually.)

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/15/opinion/la-oe-0815-gardner-chopsticks-20100815

 

[lisab]

I've used bamboo chopsticks. They're crap! They tend to warp, which makes them difficult to use (as if eating with sticks wasn't hard enough already). Even worse, they can splinter. Ouch, lips are a bad place to get a sliver!

Btw...bamboo is in the grass family.

 

[gravenewworld]

What a massive waste of resources. Chop down trees to make chopsticks and then use tons of energy to manufacture and ship them half way across the world. Just use reusable chopsticks . It's not that hard for restaurants to wash them either. I don't want to even think how much oil using reusable chopsticks would save per year.

Probably as bad as water in plastic bottles.

 

[Proton Soup]

I'm thinking maybe I should get into the business with Maclura pomifera, commonly called Osage-orange....

if you've got a lot of osage, then you might consider selling bowstaves. few woods are more valued for that besides yew. strong, flexible, and highly resistant to decay.

the fruits are a natural insecticide, too.

 

[turbo]

I have tons of white maple on this property. Not tough enough for flooring, not pretty enough for furniture (usually), but nice enough to make hard non-splintery chopsticks. Should I start a chopstick factory?