Because they are cheap and convenient, disposable chopsticks are enormously popular. Most used disposable chopsticks are incinerated as garbage. To provide a better means of dealing with their disposal, the Sendai City Government and Iwanuma Mill of Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd., the nearest paper manufacturer to Sendai City, started in August 2004 a joint project to recover and recycle disposable chopsticks. The Sendai City Government has set up a number of collection boxes. After washing and drying them, restaurant owners and event organizers deposit their used disposable chopsticks in the collection boxes. In addition, the Sendai City Government has taken steps to encourage people to participate in the project and to become more aware of the issue. Meanwhile, Iwanuma Mill recovers and recycles the disposable chopsticks at its own cost, as part of its social and environmental activities. It periodically collects used chopsticks from the boxes set up by the Sendai City Government, and recycles them as a source material for paper. The project has attracted attention as the first major recovery and recycling project for disposable chopsticks to get underway in a major city. Recovered chopsticks being carried onto a woodchip pile Putting the chopsticks into pulp manufacturing processes along with woodchip →Go Back to Major Activities