Every year, 80 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks are produced in China, which are only used once, for an average lifetime span of 25 minutes and then discarded.

It’s the equivalent of 3.8 million trees; the country already suffers from serious deforestation, only 3.34% of China’s forests remain intact, according to Greenpeace.

Safety is another worry, as many chopsticks are whitened with chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, paraffin, and sulfur dioxide; which can lead to respiratory disorder, gallstones, cancer...

Eleme, China’s leading food delivery platform (holding more than 55% of market share), processes alone around 15 million orders a day. That’s a lot of chopsticks that are going straight into the trash, or left sitting in a corner, unused and forgotten.

We partnered with a food factory in the province of Anhui, Shui Fu You Qing, to create and develop our Edible Chopsticks. Certified by China’s food safety authorities, made and packaged by local communities, the project provides hundreds of jobs along the way.

Our packaging is made from 100%-recycled paper, it’s completely sustainable. We wanted our design to be as appealing as a candy bar; bright, colorful, and mouth-watering.

Eleme already partnered with 43 major restaurants chains* in the country, spreading our Edible chopsticks. Within a week, 250 000 pairs have been spread out. And it’s only the beginning, since Eleme will progressively announce new restaurants’ partnerships in the coming weeks.