Ever wonder what happens to your used wooden chopsticks?

by robert neff on August 22, 2007

in China, East and Central Asia

Once again another tummy-tempting scandal has been revealed in China.  It appears that Mr. Wu, an unlicenced merchant, found a niche that no one else has thought of (or at least been caught doing): recycled chopsticks.

“A BEIJING factory recycled used chopsticks and sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection…The owner, identified only by his surname Wu, said he had sold the recycled chopsticks for 0.04 yuan a pair and made an average of about 1000 yuan ($160) a day.”

Better than selling organs…I guess.

According to the online edition of adelaidenow

“China, on track to overtake the United States this year as the world’s second-largest exporter, lacks a basic food safety law and the manpower to enforce food and drug safety regulations at home or for export.”

 Now that is an understatement – just ask any Korean at the Yongdongpo fish market.  But I like this part:

 ”Imports are generally carefully scrutinised.” and notes: “…in a series of tit-for-tat measures, China has accused the United States of exporting substandard soybean shipments to China and requested “effective measures” be taken.”

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Ville Memories: Why I Don't Eat Chicken On A Stick at ROK Drop
August 22, 2007 at 4:43 pm

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

1 R. Elgin August 22, 2007 at 4:43 pm

I am not surprised to read this. The Chosun Ilbo printed an editorial this article about the death of the senior Korean diplomat in Beijing. Arrogance goes before a fall and China is building up that negative karma like a champ.

I also make it a point to avoid “made in China” products when possible even if I pay more $ because I find there to be a issue of quality in many products from China but I also have to be careful with food products because sometimes people here label products as 국산 and they are really from China. If Korean rice farmers wanted to do better, they could switch to other produce and market their goods as quality goods that are better and safer than Chinese goods, assuming that they don’t cheat either. I think many shoppers would buy that instead.

2 MigukNamja August 22, 2007 at 4:47 pm

They must use a different kind in China. In Korea, all of the wooden (disposable) ones I’ve seen require you to split them into 2 pieces. With these kind of chopsticks, I don’t see how you can cheaply glue them back together so they look “new”.

However, if the chopsticks come already separated in the package, then I can see how recycling works.

3 Hatch SZ August 22, 2007 at 5:42 pm

They need to be split in China too. I don’t know how this guy worked his scam

4 peninsular aborigine August 22, 2007 at 5:46 pm

I swear it seems like many Western organs are looking for a pretext to boycott next year’s Olympics.

5 abcdefg August 22, 2007 at 6:11 pm

my gold-plated metal chopsticks for the win!

6 chiamattt August 22, 2007 at 7:17 pm

Like the cardboard dumpling hoax, I think this one is also fake news.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/.....5520070812

7 Sonagi August 22, 2007 at 7:53 pm

The US needs to take a page from China’s playbook and do a little tit-for-tat next time some bone fragments show up in a beef shipment.

8 cm August 22, 2007 at 10:18 pm

“Like the cardboard dumpling hoax, I think this one is also fake news.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/…..5520070812

Well, the news says that China arrested the reporter for lying. It didn’t provide any evidence what the reporter wrote wasn’t true. Just because the Chinese government said he lied, doesn’t mean that it is the truth. (considering what kind of government we’re talking about here)

This explains my point of what China government’s motive might be:

“The report caused a stir, not least because China is under international scrutiny for exporting food and other products that safety inspectors have found to be tainted or substandard.”

9 Railwaycharm August 24, 2007 at 3:25 pm

#6 How do you say Government patsy in Chinese?

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