Tainan government promotes use of eco-chopsticks

The Tainan City Government launched a campaign this week to urge people to always carry a set of eco-friendly chopsticks with the aim of creating a healthy environment for its residents.

Tainan Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) said that from now on, all city government employees and teachers would be required to use their own reusable chopsticks when dining.

Noting that the campaign would be expanded to include the rest of the city's residents, Hsu said the city government's aim was to lower the use of disposable chopsticks by 100,000 pairs per day.

Around 2.8 millions pairs of disposable chopsticks are used every day around the country, with the annual consumption of such chopsticks reaching billions of pairs, thus placing a heavy burden on garbage incinerators and waste burial, Hsu continued.

According to Hsu, the Tainan City Government began to ask its employees at the Bureau of Environmental Protection to use reusable chopsticks on a trial basis starting Jan. 1 this year.

Tung Ya-fen (董雅坋), managing director of the Green Care Association, also called on take-out customers to use their own eco-chopsticks instead of disposable chopsticks for the sake of personal hygiene as well as environmental protection.

Tung said that disposable chopsticks sometimes contain traces of sulfur dioxide, a chemical harmful to human beings.