It is a nice idea to be worried about preventing the waste of
waribashi—disposable chopsticks—millions of disposable chopsticks are
thrown away after a single-use.
A former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama
has built a 4-meter long canoe from 7,382 of used
disposable chopsticks recovered from the city hall cafeteria. Bothered
that perfectly good wood was going to waste after a single use, Shuhei
Ogawara — whose job at city hall involved working with the local
forestry industry — spent the last two years of his career collecting
used chopsticks from the cafeteria.

An experienced canoe builder, Ogawara spent over 3 months gluing 7,382 chopsticks together into strips to form the canoe shell, to which he added a polyester resin
coat. The canoe weighs about 30 kilograms, which is a bit
heavier than an ordinary cedar canoe, but Ogawara is confident it will
float. A launching ceremony is planned for May at nearby Lake Inawashiro.





















