Quora is a knowledge question and answer platform with 300 million monthly active users in the United States, known as the American version of Zhihu. Recently, a foreign netizen raised a widely discussed question on the platform: why Chinese do not use steel chopsticks, which can save more trees. This issue has sparked heated discussions on the Internet, and has even attracted the attention of Swedish environmental protection girl Greta Thunberg. However, for this ignorant remarks, many foreign netizens are not willing to sit idly by and criticize it fiercely.
We might as well skip China's contribution to global greening in recent years, as the questioner is ignorant of the long-standing culture and usefulness of chopsticks. Let's take a brief look at what netizens have to say about this question and whether Chinese chopsticks really cause harm to trees.
In this discussion of chopsticks, Gordon Hsu, a former member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve, points to the fact that the vast majority of chopsticks in China are made of bamboo, not wood. Bamboo grows fast and will die in large areas if not cut down in time, so cutting down bamboo is actually protecting the bamboo forest. Chinese bamboo chopsticks are therefore highly sustainable. He also pointed out that steel manufacturing is not environmentally friendly, and if there is any objection, the first thing to do is to question Japan, which is the most widely used disposable chopsticks in the world.
Another netizen, Ping Leo, defended the chopsticks used in Chinese families, saying that Chinese chopsticks are all reusable, and bamboo chopsticks are the mainstream of Chinese chopsticks. The use of steel chopsticks does not save materials and does not play an environmental role. Netizen Sean Landy responded: Chinese use wooden chopsticks to save metal, do you want them to go backwards?Why not let them go back to prehistoric times and use knives and forks as cutlery again?He pointed out that knives and forks actually originated in China, and in the Neolithic Age, people lived a primitive life, and the use of knives and forks was the best tool for handling meat. However, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with the advancement of craftsmanship, China gradually abandoned knives and forks and began to use chopsticks.
Why is it that wooden chopsticks are still widely used in China instead of steel chopsticks?First of all, different materials have different thermal conductivity. Compared to wooden chopsticks, steel chopsticks have too strong thermal conductivity, which will cause the heat to transfer too quickly when enjoying hot pot and other delicacies, making users feel a burning sensation. Secondly, texture is also a consideration, chopsticks made of metal can create an offensive grinding sound and an unpleasant cold touch when in the mouth, while wooden chopsticks avoid these problems. In addition, the manufacturing process of steel chopsticks is more complex, requiring a series of steps such as wire drawing and stamping. Whether from the perspective of cost or environmental protection, wooden chopsticks are a better choice.
One might mention the heavy use of steel chopsticks in Korea, but this is due to the difference in eating Xi habits. Koreans mainly eat barbecue, soup, and pickled foods, and wooden chopsticks are not suitable and tend to transfer flavors. In addition, South Korea has limited green area, so in order to save wood, they choose to use steel chopsticks.
Then look at the environmental problems caused by China's criticism of using a large number of disposable chopsticks. First of all, Japan is the country with the most widely used disposable chopsticks in the world, consuming 25.7 billion pairs per year, reaching about 200 pairs per capita, much higher than other countries. Secondly, China is already reducing the use of disposable chopsticks. In the nineties of the last century, disposable chopsticks were introduced to China from Japan and were advertised as safe and clean tableware, but with the improvement of Chinese people's awareness of environmental protection, people began to realize the waste of disposable chopsticks, and they have turned to recyclable chopsticks, chopstick sterilizers and other food safety tools have also come into being.
Finally, even if disposable chopsticks are used in large quantities in China, they will not have a bad impact on the environment. Through the data, it can be seen that the main raw materials of disposable chopsticks are fast-growing tree species such as bamboo, birch, and poplar. China consumes about 1.66 million cubic meters of wood every year, and China's fast-growing poplars can provide 03 cubic meters of wood, one acre of land can grow 30 poplars, a year can provide 18 cubic meters of wood. Therefore, 1.66 million cubic meters of timber requires about 920,000 mu of land, which is only 1.84 million mu of forest land, even taking into account the loss of various unknown factors. with a total area of 1Compared with 5.1 billion acres of poplars, this is just a drop in the bucket.
Today, when China is actively participating in the cause of global environmental protection, the groundless accusations made by foreigners about China's use of chopsticks are actually an unfair blow to China's thousands of years of catering culture and environmental protection efforts. Chinese have made great contributions to the global environmental protection cause through afforestation and greening projects, which is a real environmental protection action that cannot be ignored.