According to media reports, the "Regulations on the Management of Domestic Waste in Shanghai", which was passed not long ago, will be implemented in July this year. The author notes that Article 22 of the third chapter of the Regulations to promote source reduction clearly stipulates: “Catering service providers should set up thrifty consumption signs in catering service places, prompting consumers to order food. Catering service providers and catering Distribution service providers are not allowed to provide consumers with disposable chopsticks, spoons, and other tableware. Such regulations are still rare in China's local regulations.
However, this is also a flexible regulation and does not completely ban disposable chopsticks. If the consumer has a demand, it can also be provided. It can be seen that this provision is obviously also kind-hearted advocacy in public life. As for the legal norms for disposables, when it is introduced nationwide, there is no clue.
On the 1st of December, 2011, Shaanxi Province promulgated and implemented the “Regulations on the Promotion of Circular Economy in Shaanxi Province”, prohibiting catering enterprises from providing disposable chopsticks to consumers. Any operator who violates the regulations shall be ordered by the food and drug supervision and administration department to make corrections within a time limit. If the company fails to make corrections within the time limit, it will impose a fine of 500 yuan or more and 2,000 yuan for the catering enterprise; and impose a fine of 50 yuan or more and 200 yuan for the individual catering business operators. This is also the rule that the local regulations that I have seen clearly stipulate the prohibition of disposable chopsticks.
In fact, as early as 2010, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and other departments jointly issued the “Reduction on the use of disposable food and beverage industry in the environmental protection and health issues caused by the large-scale use of disposable chopsticks nationwide. The Notice of Chopsticks Work requires the restaurant and restaurant industry to reduce the use of disposable chopsticks. The former State Food and Drug Administration issued the "Emergency Notice on Preventing Unqualified Disposable Chopsticks from Flowing into the Catering Service" in the issue of disposable chopsticks reported by the media. The specifications of these two forbidden documents are not too high, and to a certain extent, they have certainly played a certain role in curbing production. However, in recent years, the frequency of the use of disposable chopsticks has not decreased.
Just in the Spring Festival just past, the author noticed that no matter whether you go out to eat or order food, you can't avoid disposable chopsticks. The author understands that many consumers prefer to use disposable tableware when eating out. The main reason is that the restaurant tableware is not closed, the cleaning is not in place, and the other is convenient. As for the takeaway meal, the author found that although the take-out platform introduced the tableware environmental protection plan, if consumers do not need tableware when ordering, they can choose “0 copies” in the number of tableware options, but many merchants still go out to the food bag. A few pairs of chopsticks.
The author thinks that when I went to Japan on a business trip more than 10 years ago, I visited Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and other cities. When I was dining in various cafeterias and restaurants, I didn't seem to see disposable chopsticks. Although the media reported that Japan is also the main country of disposable chopsticks, the authors have seen basically disinfected chopsticks.
Judging from the number of forest resources in China, China's forest resources are still in short supply. According to investigations by relevant agencies, there are currently thousands of enterprises producing wooden chopsticks in China, which consume nearly 5 million cubic meters of wood resources annually. The annual harvest of forest trees in the country is about 47.58 million cubic meters, and these chopsticks account for 10.5%. In the process of producing chopsticks, from round logs to wooden blocks to finished products, the effective utilization rate of wood is 60%. The production of disposable wooden chopsticks every day in the country consumes more than 100 mu of forest and a total of 36,000 mu in one year. From the perspective of safety and hygiene, according to the investigation report of tableware bacteria in the diet industry, there is no significant difference in the detection rate of bacteria between disposable chopsticks and ordinary chopsticks. However, compared with disinfecting and recycling chopsticks, disposable bacteria chopsticks have higher bacterial detection rates, bacterial species, and sulfide content. This means that disposable chopsticks are not disinfected and the chopsticks are clean.
It seems that Shanghai is about to implement the use of disposable chopsticks. Although it is a certain limit on the use of tableware, it actually shows a consumption restriction on the use of limited resources. This will curb the market demand for disposable chopsticks, and force manufacturers to scale down. In this sense, it can be said that it is an improvement. It is also hoped that after the implementation of the regulations, it will be able to supervise the catering operators. Less is disposable chopsticks, and more environmental protection and safety. At the same time, it can also promote the consumption of tableware for consumers.