Baskets Made From Chopsticks at the Denver Green Festival

Posted by carrie_roll

One of the coolest items I saw for sale at the Denver Green Festival was the chopstick art made by Brian Parks. So I bought one and brought it home.
You can see the basket in the video above.

The idea is simple: collect post-use, single-use chopsticks from restaurants, thoroughly clean them, sanitize them at extremely high temperature and pressure, and use them to make high-quality accents for the consumer’s living space. The idea is Kwytza (pronounced k-why-tsa) Kraft.
Kwytza Kraft was the original idea of founder Bryan Parks, an American who lived in China for several years. It’s not surprising that Bryan made a steady habit of eating with chopsticks while there. One day during lunch–which was of course being eaten with single-use chopsticks, Bryan rather nonchalantly asked his lunch partner how many chopsticks did he imagine were used per year considering China’s population size. This simple question would prove to be the catalyst for an innovative coupling of art and conservationism.
Research showed that literally billions of single-use chopsticks were consumed annually. The more shocking revelation was that it took, by some estimates, 25 million trees and bamboo plants to support that resource waste. Was there an opportunity to use the chopsticks for other applications that would provide a consumer benefit while bringing awareness to the negative environmental impact of single-use chopsticks? After extensive research and development efforts, including a unique process for reclaiming and thoroughly sanitizing chopsticks, Kwytza was born. The products are all the brain children of Bryan who is constantly thinking of the next great product that can be made with chopsticks.

Learn more at ChopstickArt.com