Chop Chop

One of the first Chinese words I learned was kuaizi, chopsticks. I went around the country with my own set which I would reuse whenever possible. China has just announced that it is to tax the items from now on. Like me, the government is concerned at the needless deforestation to feed the enormous appetite for disposable chopsticks. About 15 billion pairs (one source said 45 billion, whats a few billion here or there) are made annually consuming 71 million cubic metres of wood. The new tax is five percent, whereas a new tax on golf balls will be double that.
Source; Globe and Mail, March 23rd, 2006.