Straits Times 21 Jun 09;
Beijing - China's disposable chopsticks firms are struggling to keep their place in the market, amid growing calls to ban the use of such products for environmental protection.
'Our disposable chopsticks are mass produced from birch or poplar trees, which grow fast and have no economic value otherwise,' Mr Lian Guang, president of the Wooden Chopsticks Trade Association in north-east China's Heilongjiang province, was quoted by state media yesterday as saying.
Mr Lian said there is no better substitute for wooden disposable chopsticks, noting that melamine-resin chopsticks pose sanitary problems because of their 'high formaldehyde content'.
Unsafe levels of formaldehyde - used in making plywood for furniture - can irritate lungs and eyes, trigger asthma attacks and cause leukaemia if a person is exposed to it for long periods of time.
Mr Lian was responding to reports of Vice-Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei urging restaurant owners and diners to abandon the use of disposable chopsticks.
Mr Jiang has suggested that his ministry, the national quality surveillance agency and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce may impose a regulation to prevent the use of disposable chopsticks. The idea has fuelled fierce debate on the Internet.
Since last year, more than 1,000 restaurants in southern China's Guangzhou city and 300 restaurants in Beijing have responded to the government's call to stop providing disposable chopsticks.
China Daily/Asia News Network, Xinhua
