Chopstick re-cycling

Officials in Japan say the country will try to turn the millions of wooden chopsticks that go discarded each year into bio-fuel to ease the country's energy shortage.

Biofuels are seen as an alternative clean energy resource that can reduce dependence on Middle East oil and lessen the impact of global warming. Japan has virtually no natural energy resources of its own.

Restaurants and convenience stores generally hand out disposable, wooden chopsticks without asking. According to government data, each of Japan's 127 million people uses an average of 200 sets a year, meaning 90,000 tons of wood.

Ministry official Toyohisa Aoyama says Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to set-up boxes to collect used chopsticks.

"We will look at the plusses and minuses, including to greenhouse gas emissions, of the process of collecting the chopsticks, carrying them to facilities and then producing the biofuel," he said.

Disposable chopsticks have historically been a cash cow for Japan's forestry industry, which says it uses timber from thinning that would have otherwise been dumped.

But today about 90 per cent of chopsticks used in Japan are imported from China, mostly using bamboo and aspen timber, Mr Aoyama said. The Ministry will seek a budget to study the recycling project. It is also hoping to study turning inedible products such as straw into biofuel to run cars.