ChopValue Boston turning recycled chopsticks into furniture

BOSTON – Elaine Chow is the owner of a very interesting business venture called ChopValue Boston.

“I grew up in a household that used chopsticks all the time. My mother was the type of mother that never threw anything away. So, we had the reusable chopsticks at home,” she told WBZ-TV.

So, get this – they collect thousands of recycled chopsticks from about 100 area restaurants.

“Every week we are bringing in about 900 pounds reliably. That’s about 150,000 chopsticks,” she said.

Then Elaine and her team turn those recycled chopsticks into different pieces of furniture.

It starts with sorting all of those sticks.

“We take the bags from collection and they get dumped onto this table. This is the sorting table. It just shakes them out and organizes them in the same way,” she said.

The chopsticks are then taken out and mixed with a cleaning resin and put into a basket. From there they go to the drying oven

After that the chopsticks are hammered apart, pressed into sizes and then ready to be made into furniture.

Elaine said all of this has been good for her soul and a way to remember her mom.

“It’s been a really interesting way for me to connect with my heritage as a Chinese-American and my mom. She passed at the beginning of the pandemic and it’s also been an interesting way for me to reconnect with her,” she told WBZ-TV.

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