From a scientific point of view, which is more environmentally sound: wooden chopsticks or plastic spoons? To be more specific, putting aside one's cultural preference, which method of putting food in the mouth causes least harm to the sustainability of planet Earth? (Yes, I know eating with hands is the best!)
Asked by Mike Fong Zhu, ’98, Fair Oaks, Calif.
In considering the impacts of wooden chopsticks, regular plastics and bioplastics, the information may be daunting, or at the very least, surprising. As with all disposable items, the regular use of each throw-away cutlery has substantial negative environmental impacts.
Even at the current rate, the wood harvested for chopsticks is of grave concern when considering sustainability and climate change. Trees can control the amount of carbon dioxide
Deforestation. Photo: Pacific Lutheran University
in the air, since they use it to live. Although deforestation has started to decline globally, the rate is still alarming, according to the United Nations. As mentioned in the Essential Answer, 2 million cubic meters (or 70 million cubic feet) of wood is used in China to produce disposable chopsticks. According to the United Kingdom’s Forestry Commission, it takes about seven trees (of 40-cm trunk diameter and 6-meter height) to produce 5 cubic meters. Therefore, about 2.8 million medium-sized trees per year are cut down to produce chopsticks in China alone.
Chopstick production drives deforestation, but plastic cutlery releases more greenhouse gases than bioplastics or wood when it decays. Plastics are made from carbon-rich petroleum. Petroleum is naturally present but originally inert when buried deep in the earth. When we make plastics, we are taking something that was originally inert and exposing it to the elements. When a plastic fork degrades or is burned, it then produces gaseous carbon dioxide that is released in the atmosphere. You may wonder why bioplastics or wood doesn’t have as great of an impact in this area. Bioplastics and wood are from plants that are already present in the biosphere, or the place on Earth where all living organisms are. Plants use the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow, so when they die or decay, they release only the carbon that they acquired from the atmosphere. They do not release any net carbon dioxide. The difference between regular plastics and wood and bioplastics is that regular plastics require petroleum that was not originally part of the biosphere. As the plastic decays and releases greenhouse gases, we introduce the petroleum to the biosphere.
In the Essential Answer, we left out the issue of human health effects. Polystyrene, which is in plastic cutlery, has been shown to have adverse health impacts when inhaled as small particles during production. Chopsticks can be made from wood or bamboo, and some bamboo chopsticks are bleached with sulfur dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems if inhaled as particles. Since production of these disposable items poses a health risk for people living near the factories that make them, the human health risks present social concerns in addition to strictly environmental concerns.
Looking at the broader picture, the question about waste associated with disposable items is very intriguing. If we extend our daily usage of disposable items to a lifetime, we really have to question our consumption habits. Plastic cutlery seems like such a little thing. But imagine you were to use a plastic fork for one meal a day for a year. If each fork weighs about 3 grams (about the weight of a dime), 3 grams multiplied by 365 days is equal to 1 kilogram, which is about the weight of a pineapple. If plastics last from 500 years to forever in a landfill, landfills can really fill up quickly!
We should also think about the impacts of other disposable items that we often use. For example, many fast food restaurants use Styrofoam coffee cups. If one person drinks one cup of coffee from a new Styrofoam cup each day, she would dispose of 365 styrofoam cups in a year. In five years, 1,825 cups. In 20 years, she’ll have used 7,300 cups. Consider that this is only one disposable item she uses in her daily life. How much trash would an average American produce in a lifetime?
Plastics are responsible for many deaths of aquatic organisms. Photo: Th!nk About ItWhat about the plastic bags we get from grocery stores? How many plastic bags do you use each time you shopping? How often do you go shopping? Multiply that across the country and around he world and you see what we’re getting at. As reported by the Coral Reef Allianice & Worldwise, plastic materials may take a long time to degrade. If we are continually using and disposing items that do not degrade quickly, including small pieces of plastic cutlery, it will not be long before we run out of places to store our trash. Plastic bags also raise many other concerns because they can easily be transported to waterways and the ocean. The most alarming example is the trash vortex in the Pacific Ocean, also dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a patch of floating plastic that could be seen from satellites in space. The patch is estimated to be twice the size of Texas. Another garbage patch was also recently discovered in the Indian Ocean. How many more garbage patches will we form before we will be motivated to change our consumption habits?
Looking at the bigger picture, we should rethink the use of disposable items. These items may make our lives today slightly more convenient, but looking ahead 50 years, they can also make our lives and our planet uninhabitable.
Kathleen Low is a master's student in environmental engineering and science.
