ChopValue gives chopsticks a second life as high quality design material

ChopValue, a Vancouver-based company, creates high-performance designs made entirely from recycled chopsticks. Collected from restaurants, discarded chopsticks are transformed through a carbon-neutral micro-manufacturing model and reintroduced as high-value engineered products.

Applications include a Community Table - created from 33,436 discarded chopsticks - as well as wall paneling, restaurant tables, and entrance flooring. Other applications include serving blocks, kitchen backsplashes, and wall décor.

The bamboo chopstick is in a sense a perfect raw material as it is neatly tapered with no knots or cracks. Additionally, it is made with a fast-growing sustainable resource that is plentiful as a waste product. It is estimated that the city of Vancouver alone throws out 100,000 chopsticks a day. ChopValue estimates it has diverted more than 25 million chopsticks from the waste stream to date and is expanding its operations to other Canadian cities as well as to Los Angeles.

ChopValue was founded by Felix Bock and the microfactory concept where he developed and engineered an innovative material using under-utilized resources. ChopValue has allowed him to discover a way to connect his expertise and research focus on bamboo composite material within the circular economy while doing his PhD in collaboration with UBC/MIT/Cambridge.