Ordering takeout is as popular as ever, and most times the meal comes with extras like condiments, napkins, and utensils such as chopsticks that can all end up in a drawer, or worse, the trash.
But a Reddit user on r/upcycling came up with a clever use for the chopsticks that often come with Asian delivery food. In their post, they showed their use of a chopstick to support a plant by tying it to the stem with a rubber band.
"The rubber band came from a shop when buying a bundle of vegetables," they wrote, highlighting a secondary upcycling opportunity.
By not tossing the chopsticks (and rubber bands) in the trash, you save time, money, and resources.
Saving a trip to the store means saving gas (or saving another delivery driver dropping off an order if you shop online). It also means saving money on buying a new product, not to mention its packaging, which is likely made of single-use plastic. After being discarded, these items often take up space in a landfill.
According to CalRecycle, packaging waste takes up 50% of space in landfills. Landfills release methane, a polluting gas that contributes to climate change — so the less material that ends up in landfills, the better.
On a larger scale, some companies are working on upcycling products to keep them out of landfills. Material Return, an organization in North Carolina, takes used clothing and creates new materials from textile waste that would have otherwise gone to landfills. As of 2023, Material Return reported they already diverted nearly 2 million pounds of textile waste from ending up in a landfill.
Whatever level it's done at, reusing materials from around the home is a quick and easy way to help the environment by not spending money — and, in turn, resources — on new things when existing ones can be creatively repurposed.
People in the comments on Reddit praised the chopstick hack.
One person offered some additional ideas for reusing a chopstick, writing: "I also use chopsticks in my plants to test the moisture in the soil and to move the spiderwebs out. Great idea!"
Another was grateful for the hack, saying: "I need something for my growing pepper plant, this is it! Thank you!!"
And if you are inundated with chopsticks you haven't found uses for yet, you can always ask the restaurant to leave out the utensils and any other unnecessary items from your delivery.
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