Canoes

Recycle warrior and canoe builder, Shuhei Ogawara, constructs a canoe from restaurant waste.

There’s no denying the fact that sushi has become a favourite food as Japanese restaurants roll out across the urban streets of North America. But as more people bite into sashimi rolls, an incredible amount of waste is pilling up from disposable chopsticks.

A canoe builder from Japan, Shuhei Ogawara, was disgusted with the amount of waste generated from used chopsticks and set about collecting thousands of them from his workplace cafeteria and did what any builder would do—craft a canoe.

Two years of collecting, three months of hard labour and 7,382 chopsticks later, Ogawara built his 13-foot canoe. Sealing the canoe with a polyester resin coat, the canoe weighs 66 pounds, a bit heavy for compared to some light-weights on the market today.

The inaugural launch took place at Lake Inawashiro helping to raise awareness about our wastefulness and the need for innovation to help solve these problems.