Wednesday, March 22, 2006

China to Tax Chopsticks...Save Trees

CHINA--The Times Online reports that China, in order to conserve trees, is about to start taxing chopsticks. It seems a little extreme...except for the fact that China goes through 15 billion pairs of throw-away chopsticks per year. That equals 2 million cubic meters of wood or 10 million trees!

Legend has it that chopsticks were invented 4,000 years ago by Yu the Great, when he dipped two twigs into hot broth to take meat from a pot. The Times article includes an interesting history of chopsticks.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me being as chopsticks are made from bamboo, which is in fact a 'grass'.