BEIJING, KOMPAS.com - The Chinese government is having a headache because of chopsticks. The country that has a habit of eating with chopsticks has apparently been aggressively campaigning for a ban on disposable chopsticks made of bamboo and wood because it is considered to damage the environment.

China has repeatedly experienced major floods and landslides. The chopstick issue is a matter for China's Ministry of Commerce along with six other ministries. Companies that still produce disposable chopsticks will get obstacles and bans from the local government.

With a population of 1.3 billion, China annually discards 45 billion pairs of chopsticks or about 130 million pairs of chopsticks per day. Greenpeace China environmentalists estimate that to meet this demand, 100 acres of land must be available for bamboo trees and must be renewed every 24 hours. Just imagine, a forest larger than Tiananmen Square or the equivalent of 100 soccer fields must be sacrificed every day just to provide chopsticks.

Deforestation is one of the major problems facing the Chinese Government today. The government has launched the "Bring Your Own Chopsticks" campaign. However, it seems that it is really difficult to get rid of this habit of using disposable chopsticks partly because it is cheaper compared to the washing cost for iron or plastic chopsticks that can be used repeatedly.