Right end of the stick
China recently introduced a 5 per cent tax on disposable wooden chopsticks, in a bid to conserve its forests. Millions of trees and bamboo plants are cut every year in China to produce 45 billion disposable wooden chopsticks, which are exported as well as used domestically. Environmentalists have warned that at the current rate of timber use, the country will soon have no forests left.
The new policy is a turnaround. In the past, the government has encouraged the use of disposable chopsticks to reduce the spread of infectious diseases by sharing eating utensils.
The Chinese president Hu Jintao also issued a regulation to set up an environment evaluation system to curb pollution caused by military activities. The Chinese army will now have to seek project approval from local authorities, which will require all projects to pass through environment evaluation.
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