We are excited to share that YVR has officially recycled one million bamboo chopsticks, the equivalent of nine tonnes of diverted waste. This is a significant milestone and collecting them has been no simple feat – we’d like to say a big thanks to our incredible Dexterra staff who are responsible for collecting chopsticks from our food courts!
Since 2016, YVR has partnered with ChopValue, a local innovative product engineering and design company that recycles used chopsticks and transforms them into sustainable products. Our partnership with ChopValue is just one of the many ways we’re committed to reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts at YVR. The picture above is from an installation ChopValue created in the terminal to show how YVR's chopsticks are contributing to the circular economy.
Watch this video to learn more about our partnership with ChopValue:
About ChopValue
In 2016, Felix Böck, founder and CEO of ChopValue, spotted an opportunity to harvest the urban supply of bamboo chopsticks after learning that about 100,000 chopsticks are used and disposed of every single day in Vancouver alone.
In the beginning days of ChopValue, Felix and his small team travelled around the city collecting used chopsticks to create an innovative building material. YVR was one of the first partners to work with ChopValue and flash forward to 2019, our partnership is one of the key reasons we’ve been able to successfully surpass our waste diversion target year after year.
As ChopValue continues to expand in other cities, Felix remains focused on ensuring that these new ventures produce and recycle in the same city to incorporate the circular economy. This is achieved through their “micro-manufacturing concept” which localizes the organization to each individual region.
We are incredibly proud to work with ChopValue and are excited to watch them continue to grow, one chopstick at a time.