Disposable chopsticks are very convenient to use and low-cost. They are the most commonly used utensils by restaurants in China. Every year Chinese consumers use 45 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks,which amounts to around 25 million trees, accounting for 200 square meters of demolished forest area. If this rate continues, forests will disappear from China in just 20 years. However, most people are unaware of this fact.

The campaign received coverage from 110 local and international media outlets. During the campaign period, there were over 3,000,000 hits when you ran a search for “chopstick tree” in Google. Afterwards the chopstick tree was invited for long term exhibition in the national art museum.

We recycled over 30,000 used pairs of disposable chopsticks from restaurants all over Shanghai. And turned them into a broken chopstick tree structure. The installation was then displayed in several busy city districts popular with restaurant diners. Through the visual impact of the fallen chopstick trees, we raised awareness of the fact that the use of disposable chopsticks results in the destruction of large numbers of trees.

China Environmental Protection Foundation wanted an impact amongst all the Chinese people thus urge everyone to “say no to disposable chopsticks” and choose reusable ones instead. We created a piece of installation and exhibited it at busy districts to raise their awareness.