Since 2020, all major restaurant chains have adopted wooden tableware by default, so why are wooden tableware widely used? According to the "Implementation Plan for Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution" issued, by the end of 2020, the catering industry in each city shall prohibit the use of non-degradable disposable plastic straws, and the use of degradable disposable plastic tableware in catering services is prohibited. As a result, our favorite restaurant brand can no longer offer plastic spoons. It can be said that the replacement of plastic tableware with wooden tableware is the general trend.
Why choose wooden tableware
Perhaps most of us consider PLA and CPLA products to be the best alternatives. After all, it is similar to plastic in nature and is degradable. However, the biodegradability of polymers such as PLA and CPLA is not unconditional. It's not completely free of environmental hazards. PLA biodegradation needs to meet two basic conditions: 50%-60% humidity and 50-70 degrees Celsius temperature. Under these conditions, microorganisms have the potential to gradually decompose PLA over months or even longer. Looking at this problem from another angle, PLA cannot degrade in an environment that does not meet the temperature and humidity conditions. This is still true for products made of 100% PLA raw materials. If it is to improve its temperature resistance and other characteristics, it is often more difficult to degrade.
In other words, it needs to be recycled separately, then sorted, and then commercially composted for several months before PLA degrades. This undoubtedly requires huge energy costs. As for the essential degradation, it is nothing more than the fact that the manufacturer did not explain it, which led to the misunderstanding of the public.
And why do major brands choose wooden tableware? You know, big brands have a lot of preparations when choosing new products. Whether it is a material we know or don't know, as long as it is degradable tableware, they will conduct experiments and undergo rigorous testing and repeated experiments. In the end, they chose wooden tableware, which degrades under natural conditions and can be thrown away without any burden after use.
When disposable tableware is made of wood, is our tree enough?
After understanding the various advantages of wooden tableware, we may still have this idea: No matter how fast the tree grows, the consumption is now large, right? Is it environmentally friendly to cut down so many trees?
Take the disposable wooden chopsticks we often use as an example. The wood we consume for disposable chopsticks is less than a fraction of our standing stock. At present, my country uses about 45 billion pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks and consumes 1.66 million cubic meters of wood. In general, a 5-year-old fast-growing poplar can provide 0.3 cubic meters of wood. One acre of woodland can usually be planted with 30 fast-growing poplars. So on average, 1 mu of woodland can provide about 1.8 cubic meters of wood per year. In this way, to provide 1.66 million cubic meters of wood, about 922,200 acres of land are needed. Even taking into account losses of yield reductions due to factors such as poor management, doubling the planting area would require 1.84 million mu of forest land. At present, our country has reached more than 10.1 million hectares or 151.5 million acres. 1.84 million mu is only a small part of it. According to People's Daily Online, in one county in Jiangsu alone, there are more than 600,000 mu of forests and 6 million cubic meters of standing trees. 1.66 million cubic meters may seem like a terrifying figure, but it's actually just the tip of the plantation. Yuansong Micro's wooden tableware is made of pure natural birch, a fast-growing wood like poplar, which is an FSC forest-certified tree selected from regular forest farms. It is definitely not cutting down, planting far exceeds consumption. Soon, the trees will absorb carbon dioxide and fix the carbon in the wood. Then we make disposable wooden cutlery and plant the next batch of trees.
Yuansong Micro is a professional disposable wooden tableware company, the wooden tableware we produce is healthy and environmentally friendly. If you want to know more about disposable wooden tableware, please continue to pay attention to Yuansong Micro's official website. We will update relevant articles and products from time to time, provide relevant product information and materials, and look forward to your visit and consultation.
