Chopsticks have a long history in China. It is said that in 1500 BC, chopsticks became the main eating utensils of the Chinese. Traditional chopsticks are made of bamboo, fir, and ebony. In the court, silver chopsticks are often used to test the poison. When the silver chopsticks hit the poison, it will turn black. The eunuchs can find out in time which food has been poisoned. Chinese people use chopsticks is a common thing, but no one thought that in the 21st century, chopsticks would cause environmental problems.
In the mid-1980s, the market economy flourished, people's life pace accelerated, and with millions of farmers going out to earn money and the development of tourism, disposable chopsticks developed rapidly. In order to prevent the spread of the disease, China began to promote disposable chopsticks, and many restaurants have begun to use disposable chopsticks.
In the mid-1990s, people began to recognize the environmental problems caused by chopsticks. Plastic bags, plastic lunch boxes, and wooden chopsticks were discarded along roads and railways; deforestation caused the 1998 flood, which once again caused people's attention to disposable chopsticks. At the same time, other Asian countries have begun to pay attention to disposable chopsticks. South Korea began using metal chopsticks instead of disposable wooden chopsticks six years ago. Environmentalists condemn Japan's annual import of 25 billion pairs of chopsticks from other countries.
China now produces about 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks a year and needs to cut 25 million trees. Environmentalists warn that at the current rate, China may cut down all forests within 20 years. Chinese environmentalists are already fighting this simple and convenient eating utensil, refusing to use disposable chopsticks. College students consciously use spoons in the school cafeteria, not using disposable chopsticks. For example, at Tsinghua University, students recently used a reusable plastic spoon instead of disposable chopsticks in the cafeteria. Of course, some students complained that they are not accustomed to using a thin spoon, and how do the small spoons eat noodles? It seems that this idea needs to be improved. Members of the Internet community are organizing the distribution of chopsticks sets so that people can bring chopsticks for reuse during meals.
The driver Kang Dahu is an environmentalist. He feels that the use of disposable chopsticks is a threat and a symbol of improper handling of environmental problems in China. He decided to defend his environmental cause with his own actions. He is a driver, often runs a transport, and every time he goes to a restaurant to eat, he takes out his own chopsticks. After he finished the meal, he washed the chopsticks and put them in a small bag that he carried with him. He used actual actions to resist the use of disposable chopsticks. Every time the restaurant waiter saw his move, he laughed at his "stupid" action.
But the 22-year-old environmentalist volunteer has never wavered. He said: "The use of disposable chopsticks is a big waste. In order to manufacture them, we are gradually destroying the remaining forests. Imagine that many years later, the children and grandchildren asked us where the Chinese forests are going, we only It’s sad to say that we made the forest into chopsticks. Isn’t that a big sadness?”
China's environmental movement has been vigorously launched throughout the country. In order to bid for the Olympics, more than 100 hotels in Beijing have started a green movement, began to wash chopsticks and reuse chopsticks. Shanghai and other cities are also considering bans on disposable chopsticks in some areas. The Ministry of Finance is considering implementing new tariffs on departments that still use disposable chopsticks to reduce the number of disposable chopsticks.
Regardless of the Chinese government's reaction to environmentalists, the chopsticks movement has fully demonstrated that the Chinese people's civic awareness, responsibility, and participation are strengthening, and people are beginning to think about deep-seated problems. The 24-year-old Zhang Zhe is now working for an environmental group. She said: "Chopsticks are an example. In fact, the Chinese are now considering more environmental protection than before."
Zhang Zhe said that she was born in Benxi, a city in northeast China. Benxi is one of the largest steel cities in China. It was originally a beautiful city, but as the pollution became more and more serious, she found that there was no longer a star in the starry sky. The sky was always gray. of. Of the world's top ten polluted cities announced by the World Health Organization in 1998, China accounted for seven.
When he was in college, Zhang Zhe became an environmental volunteer. She organized a team with spoons and chopsticks in the university. At first, they had only 5 people and later developed to more than 200 people. The volunteers also successfully convinced the school cafeteria to stop using disposable chopsticks.
Whether chopsticks reform can solve China's environmental problems is, of course, difficult to say. But what is gratifying is that the Chinese have begun to realize that their consumption habits have had a great impact on the environment and they are beginning to move toward a green environmental movement.
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