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Playing Chopsticks
In belated celebration of Earth Day, I want to add this item to my environmental to-do list: Carry around a pair of chopsticks, to conserve wood by avoiding the use of disposable chopsticks. China, a country that uses 45 billion pairs of chopsticks a year (that 35 pairs/person in China per year), placed a tax on them last year.
Though, this has been on my radar for years, in terms of conservation, Zha Jianying's essay from last week's New Yorker brought forth the human rights concerns, as well. The essay focuses on the author's brother, a political prisoner in China. I realized that there was a good chance that each time I use disposable chopsticks, I support China's prison labor system, when she wrote, "[My brother] has also refused to take part in the manual work that all prisoners in his unit are supposed to do: packing disposable chopsticks and similar chores."
Comments (1)
=v= I carry To-Go Ware in my messenger bag:
http://www.to-goware.com/products.php
(Plus a hemp napkin.) As an emergency backup, I have a bamboo spork:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jym/184150961/
Posted on May-15-2007 | Link