In fact, according to Atlas Obscura, about 80 million pairs of chopsticks end up anually in landfills worldwide and chinese activists say that in order to keep up with demand, as much as 40 hectares of forests disappear daily in China.

The Chinese Government has tried encouraging the use of reusable chopsticks and even levied taxes on manufacturers to solve the issue, but it sill persists, because single-use chopsticks are considered to be more practical.

Felix Bock, the founder of ChopValue, a canadian startup, said that „in Vancouver alone, we're throwing out 100.000 chopsticks a day. They're travelling 6.000 to 7.000 miles from where they're manufactured in Asia to end up on our lunch table for 30 minutes."

Since 2016, Felix Bock tried to rethink a way to repurpose single-use chopsticks, through circular economy.

This way, employees from the Vancouver-based company gather about 350.000 chopsticks from more than 300 restaurants on a weekly basis and later turn them into book shelves, desks, coasters and more.

The founder claims that through this practice he was able to give a new life to more than 50 million pairs of chopsticks since the beginning of the project.

"Once you see the volume, you think maybe that little humble chopstick can be the start of something big", Bock added.

Still, the procedure isn't easy, and in order to be able to use the chopsticks for furniture they need to sterilize them.

First they coat the chopsticks with a water-based resin, then they sterilize them at up to nearly 100 degrees. Then, the chopsticks are being pressed and turned into a wood slate which is used for manufacturing furniture and decorations.

Furthermore, this operation doesn't have any negative effect on the environment.

Beside chopsticks, there are other objects used in the food industry that have a negative impact on the planet, such as plastic straws and polystyrene takeout containers.