So far ChopValue has managed to give a second life to more than 34 million rods while saving more than one billion kg of CO2.
So far ChopValue has managed to give a second life to more than 34 million food chopsticks, saving more than 1 billion 300 thousand kg of CO2.
Chopsticks, originating from oriental cultures, have gone around the world increasing their popularity even more, and with it also the concern about their environmental impact. Made of wood, millions of chopsticks are used every day for a single meal and then thrown in the garbage, just think that China alone produces about 80 billion pairs every year.
©ChopValue
ChopValue, a Canadian company, has decided to turn them into sustainable furniture and objects for the home. Collecting them one by one in the various restaurants, through an artisanal process, hundreds of these disposable cutlery come together and transform, giving life to new minimal and elegant objects and furnishing accessories.
©ChopValue
The sushi of ideas
During his PhD in Vancouver, Wood Engineer Felix Böck, was looking to initiate a regional program to tackle the municipal wood waste problem on a larger scale within the housing market, sadly, however. it was not the one hoped for. In fact, at the time being able to convince people and lenders that there is no waste, but wasted resources, it was still very difficult.
Enlightenment came as he dined at a sushi restaurant, wondering how he could convince people of the goodness of his program. The idea was there, in her hands, she connected the chopsticks she was using to the vast amount of lost resources, and so, from a pair of cutlery no longer seen as garbage but as a resource, ChopValue was born in 2016. Since then, the Canadian company has recycled 34.976.255 wands, saving 1.324.508,04 kg of CO2 emissions, turning them into minimalist and sustainable products for the home and office.
©ChopValue
I understood that in order to demonstrate sustainable economy concepts based on a supply of residues as by-products, there had to be opinion leaders who demonstrated their feasibility. It had to be interesting, something easy to understand and arouse emotions about the problem of the linear economy and about our large amount of waste, ”says Böck.
The circularity of the chopsticks
©ChopValue
Involving different realities, ChopValue has created a network of awareness and directly deals with the collection of the material, the recycling, sanitation and production process, in which basically through the compression of the sticks in a plate and a cooking process it gives new life to the chopsticks. .
©ChopValue
We collect from restaurants, retail stores and business partners in cities where we have micro-factories. Each quarter we share with our partners the impact they have had, which includes the number of rods that have diverted from landfill and the amount of carbon saved, ”says Alison Lee, the company's marketing manager.
©ChopValue
With 1425 rods building blocks are made, with 10.854 the table of a desk, on their website the quantity of recycled resources and the environmental impact measured with CO2 savings are detailed, in order to raise awareness of the feasibility and on the beauty of the circular economy.
©ChopValue
ChopValue's goal is to create a franchise network, with micro-factories, in which chopsticks from local restaurants become products made by local artisans and also sold locally in the name of the circular economy. An opportunity for growth, without losing the relationship with our communities.
©ChopValue
We exist to make the circular economy and urban collection simply the norm. Turning waste into a resource, one wand at a time, ”concludes Lee.
©ChopValue
A simple and transparent circular model, which is concerned with raising awareness of the importance of exploiting our "waste", always leaving the door open for those who want to join this circularity to give a new opportunity to chopsticks.
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