Disposable Chopsticks: DIY Tips You'd Never Think Of (PHOTOS)

From Networx's Chaya Goodman:

We normally unwrap takeout chopsticks, eat with them and dispose of them without much thought. Recently, though, there has been a small wave of transnational activism aimed at reducing the use of disposable chopsticks stateside and in Asia; chopsticks, activists say, are contributing to heavy deforestation in China.

The approach of activist groups like Greenpeace East Asia has been to encourage individuals to carry reusable chopsticks, and The New York Times reports that many restaurants in Asia and in America are no longer popping disposable chopsticks into every takeout bag. Given that your local sushi place may not have jumped on the conservation bandwagon yet, I'd like to help you at least get an extra use out of disposable chopsticks. Here are 50 ways you can reuse those takeout chopsticks.

Tips courtesy of Networx. For the rest of Networx's "50 Uses for Disposable Chopsticks," visit their website. Images courtesy of Flickr users as credited.

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Comments

[banana republican]

08:55 PM on 12/26/2011

Ah, another 'environmentalist' strategy to kill American jobs in exchange for a little superficial moral gratification. Don't you just love it? http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Chopsticks-Carry-Made-in-America-Label-125740793.html

[Maezeppa]

12:41 PM on 12/27/2011

Disposable chopsticks are stupid.  I always refuse them with carry-out.

[banana republican]

02:22 PM on 12/27/2011

They'll take your eye out.

[cuoi]

05:44 PM on 12/26/2011

Catch bullets...

[henriette and hube]

01:13 PM on 12/26/2011

The best thing to do is to buy non-disposabal. I've have several pair and gorgeous hand carved ones that were a gift from a dear friend that are only used by me. Many Chinese restaurants have done away with wooden disposable ones long ago.

[Whatdoyou thinkof this]

11:48 PM on 12/25/2011

Chopsticks are great for mixing paint or for removing the skim off a can of paint that has been sitting too long.

[greenwood152]

10:19 AM on 12/25/2011

I keep some in my "go bag" along with medical supplies to use as emergency splints. Also good with a rag wrapped around them for cleaning out the barrel and cyclinder on hand guns.

[bbriani3842]

09:48 AM on 12/25/2011

Use them to work out our constipation problems ...

[cuoi]

05:39 PM on 12/26/2011

Be careful of splinters...("It was a million in one shot, Doc!")

[Robert Lee Harrington]

07:34 AM on 12/25/2011

"When Everything is AMAZING, nothing becomes AMAZING"

Robert Lee Harrington

December 25, 2012

[henriette and hube]

01:14 PM on 12/26/2011

I changed that road many years ago. Wonderful isnt it?

[Robert Lee Harrington]

01:16 PM on 12/26/2011

Yes; and thanks for it.

[nightingale801]

02:39 AM on 12/25/2011

Conclusion: Stop ordering Chinese food & Use your creativity - teach yourself how to cook healthy & ecological meals . . .

[mose joseph workman]

10:15 PM on 12/24/2011

Other Alternative Uses for Chopsticks:
1. Use them to tweak nipples
2. Use them to clean your ears
3. Use them in a Mexican restaurant just to confuse people
4. Use them in those whack Japanese geisha hairdos
5. Use them as drumsticks when pretending to be Phil Collins
6. Get celebrities to sign them and sell them on eBay like little baseball bats
7. Use them to steal food from adjacent tables in restaurants
8. Return them to office supply stores and claim they are defective pencils
9. Glue glitter on them and give them to children as magic wands
10. Find 15 marbles and play a game of miniature billiards with a chopstick cuestick

[nightingale801]

02:40 AM on 12/25/2011

I like number 9 & 10

[irocker350]

02:36 PM on 12/25/2011

I like #3 and 8
LOL

[Marturia]

08:09 PM on 12/24/2011

They are good to have with sewing supplies, pushing the fabric along and for turning corner edges on pillows. I've also used them for loosening the food that sticks inside my braun mixer.

[DAE]

06:33 PM on 12/24/2011

Try the peanut game. Pick up a shelled peanut between two chopsticks. Not too hard. Try picking up two shelled peanuts side by side with them. A little bit harder. Now try three. More difficult still. How about four? Five? I've done five. It took me the whole evening. Great way to waste time and a whole lot cheaper than most other pastimes.

[Marturia]

08:05 PM on 12/24/2011

Great for kids to help increase dexterity. Cute.

[iLdoRight]

05:05 PM on 12/24/2011

Saw on the news that there is a company in the U.S. that sells chopsticks to China. They have adequate renewable tree sources.

[Robert Lee Harrington]

02:57 PM on 12/24/2011

AMAZING? I DON"T THINK SO

Amazing

Adjective:

Causing great surprise or wonder; astonishing.

Startlingly impressive.

[salamanca1]

12:53 PM on 12/24/2011

I always use chopsticks while cooking. Three at once as a whisk, and two to pick up, turn over food. If you're cooking uncased sausage in a frying pan, you can use two sticks to break up the sausage into smaller pieces. And unlike metal utensils, they won't scratch non-stick cooking surfaces. I wouldn't be without them.

[bigtimeinc]

03:34 AM on 12/25/2011

go you ..... your the man ....... my hero.........

[stickmanmob]

10:52 AM on 12/24/2011

Some of the worst ideas I have ever heard of...