The World may still be googling Trump, but (these days) artmania’s interest rests on Felix Böck. He’s a doctoral student in the faculty of forestry, and the brainchild of ChopValue, recycling Bamboo chopsticks into newly developed materials . His innovation has become our latest product. We’re in love with his wall tiles and coasters.

Böck keeps chopsticks out of the landfill by recycling and reusing them as building material. Böck estimates that at least 100,000 chopsticks are thrown out every day in Metro Vancouver. His process provides participating restaurants a free recycling program. The servers at each restaurant discard any used bamboo chopsticks in a bin provided by ChopValue. The bin is picked up and switched out weekly. The chopsticks are cleaned, coated in resin, and hot pressed down flat into square tiles. The square tiles become the building blocks for coasters, shelves, and table tops.

They make perfect christmas gifts for your environmentally conscious friend!