ChopValue, a Vancouver, Canada-based company, is upcycling used chopsticks into laminated tiles that can then be used as coasters or combined to make cutting boards, stair treads, tabletops, and other furniture. After picking up some of the 100,000 chopsticks discarded each day in Vancouver alone, the utensils are dipped in a water-based resin and roasted to sanitize them. Then they are hydraulically compressed into tiles before being made into more than 30 different products. Since 2016, ChopValue has upcycled 33 million pairs of chopsticks and expanded its operations to three other North American cities.
—Alison Lee, via email
