When people say Felix Böck has good taste in home décor, they aren’t kidding. All of the wood he uses in his bamboo creations has been part of someone’s meal.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) forestry student has tapped into a unique source for building materials that has gone completely unnoticed: Vancouver’s massive Asian food scene.
Whether it’s sushi, poke, or ramen, Metro Vancouverites can’t get enough. The weapon of choice is a pair of disposable bamboo chopsticks. The area is home to more than 2,000 restaurants that use them. An estimated 100,000 are thrown away every day in that city alone.
“When you look at it from a resource perspective, you quickly realize how large the volume is that we throw out,” Böck told CTV News.
His business, ChopValue, employs the principal of “upcycling” -- taking something no longer in use and giving it a second life and new function. The finished product is often more practical, valuable, and beautiful than the original.
In this case, stylish tabletops, kitchen countertops, coasters, and cutting boards that will remain in homes and restaurants for years, out of chopsticks with a lifespan of a single meal.
Böck launched the business in May 2016. He spent $200 from the money he makes as a (UBC) teaching assistant and invested in chopstick receptacles, which are placed near the garbage bins at participating local restaurants free of charge.
The collected material is sorted and cleaned. Once sanitized, the sticks are coated in resin and dried before being placed in a hot press and squished in to square tiles. It takes over 200 sticks to make a single tile, but supply doesn’t seem to be an issue. Böck’s workshop at UBC is filled with huge bags for future projects.
ChopValue has raised nearly $17,000 on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter since August, exceeding its target of $15,000, and moving closer its goal of expanding to more neighbourhoods and diverting more utensils from landfills.
With a report from CTV’s Melanie Nagy in Vancouver
