Bring Your Own Cutlery needs to become a new trend

Bring Your Own Cutlery (BYOC) needs to become a new trend, no ifs or buts

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Bring your own chopsticks has become a trend in Japan and Taiwan and this must extend to cutlery elsewhere. Bring Your Own Cutlery (BYOC) needs to become a new trend, no ifs or buts, but, oh, and here is a but, we then also have to take it home again to wash up when it is dirty. It is not difficult and not rocket science.

BYOC wherever you go, instead of using disposable plastic utensils that never biodegrade while littering the world's beaches. Even if plastic utensils are claimed to be biodegradable or worst still compostable they are neither, at least not under normal (composting) conditions.

As an “old” military man – and soldiers and officers always carry their own “mess kit”, at least “in the field” – it is a habit to have my own set of cutlery on me when I know I may be dining out on a take out that might require tools. I also have a set of chopsticks, in a leather sleeve, same as the stainless steel cutlery, for the same purpose. The chopsticks were found, thrown away, still sealed in their original package, after a picnic and the stainless steel cutlery is ex-airline. Those ex-airline knife, fork and spoon are smaller than standard cutlery but similar smaller cutlery can be bought in stores as well.

Plastic forks, knives, and spoons are one of those things that we tend to think are inevitable when eating on the go or feeding a crowd. Even though alternatives do exist, these are not widely known or accessible, which is a pity, considering the impact that plastic cutlery has on the environment. It does not biodegrade, and they are some of the most common trash that is found in parks and open spaces and also on the beaches. The majority of those never ever make it into the recycling stream either.

Along with shopping bags and straws, disposable plastic cutlery is yet another part of the pollution puzzle that is threatening the world's oceans and waterways. And, like bags and straws, it is a direct consequence of our societal obsession with convenience, something that would not need or have to exist if everyone took a few moments to plan ahead before leaving the house.

The strange phenomena that we, who work in parks and open spaces, now encounter is that people take real cutlery to a picnic and then, would anyone believe it, they leave them, once dirty, behind, either thrown into the trashcans or just left behind where they have been sitting.

So, what are the alternatives?

Most obviously, disposable plastic cutlery should be made illegal, which is precisely what France has done. All single-use plastic cutlery, along with plates and cups, will be banned soon: "Manufacturers and retailers have until 2020 to ensure that any disposable products they sell are made of biologically sourced materials and can be composted in a domestic composter." While that is a nice move I doubt that there will be any disposable products going to be coming on the market that are truly compostable in a domestic composter, though they may claim that, in the same way that they claimed that the plastic bags for the food waste caddies were compostable in that way and later industry had to row back saying that that was not what they meant but compostable in a commercial hot composting unit. But that was not what it said, at least not originally.

What we all really should start doing is carrying our own cutlery for eating in restaurants or on the go in the same way that many people travel with water bottles. So why not forks and knives, too?

China, and I understand also Japan, have recently pushed to get people to carry reusable chopsticks, in order to reduce the 20 million trees currently cut down each year to make disposable chopsticks. The campaign has been hugely successful, thanks to celebrity backing.

While we don't, as yet, have celebrity backing for bring your own cutlery it should, nevertheless, become something that we do as a routine. A small set of flatware can be easily carried; every soldier does so in the field, and more often than not in the pocket of the tunic or the shirt. Those military sets that clip together can be purchased as military sets (from many surplus stores) or also for the civilian realm as camping or trail cutlery (from camping and outdoors equipment stores). It was also common practice for Boy Scouts and Young Pioneers when going to camp to have your own clip-together set) or similar).

Many more restaurants should again be offering metal cutlery for eating in and that should also extend to ice cream parlors for spoons. It was the common practice not all that long ago. But washing real dishes and cutlery takes a little effort and that was – probably – the main reason that everything went over to plastic “garbage”.

Let's hear it for BYOC.

© 2017

China's 80 billion-a-year chopstick habit has serious impact on forests

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

China's ever increasing demand for disposable chopsticks is taking an serious and ever growing toll on the country's forests, Chinese state media reports.

According to Bai Guangxin, chairman of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, China produces 80 billion disposable chopsticks per year, up sharply from the 57 billion estimated by the state forestry administration in 2010. Bai told Xinhua that 20 million trees are felled annually to meet demand. He didn't specify the origin of the trees, but domestic sources would mostly come from forest plantations since the country banned natural forest logging after devastating floods in 1998.

Bai said that chopstick demand risks undermining the country's reforestation and afforestation targets. Accordingly, he recommended that people carry their own chopsticks when they dine out at restaurants.

Previous efforts to stem the use of disposable chopsticks – including a use tax in 2006 and a threat of increased government regulation in 2010 – have apparently failed.

If it is true that the the timber for those chopsticks comes from domestic sources and in that case from plantations which have been created and are managed for this purpose then this is one thing and a lot more sustainable. However, if foreign sources and natural forest logging is part of this then things look different altogether.

While everyone immediately panics when the talk is of trees being cut for the production of this or that the source of the tree is what matters. It is the same with chopstick production as with paper.

That is to say that is the sources are from sustainably managed plantations, as is the case for most of the paper industry, for instance, the fact is that were it not for this particular industry those forests would not even exist.

On the other hand, if the wood is sourced in other ways then we do have a serious problem, especially if not replanting is undertaken, as is the case, so it is understood with Kimberly-Clark’s operations in the boreal forests of Canada.

We have now had the advice given to Chinese – and the same advice is being given to Japanese – diners to bring their own chopsticks when they go out to eat and still, it would appear, the demand for the disposable ones is increasing year by year. The message, thus, does not seem to have gotten through. Reinforcement may be required by way of legislation and a tax on disposable chopsticks.

And such a tax would also be good in the West for the same, as tons of disposable chopsticks are also used by those buying take-out Sushi, for instance, and Chinese meals. Also such a levy would also come in handy, maybe, to curb the use of disposable cups and cutlery in general.

The bring-your-own (BYO) principle is not difficult but it would appear that people are simply too lazy to do it all too often and the same also applies as regards to shopping bags.

When I grew up it was traditional for us to carry our own set of cutlery and then, as a military man that was again the way. So, still today, I carry, and the same for several other things, such as refillable water bottle. It can be done but needs forethought.

© 2013