chopsticks
so now china is putting new taxes on disposable wooden chopsticks. some other things too, with the idea of helping environmental issues, which is good. those disposable chopsticks are EVERYwhere in china. every vendor on the street, of course, will give you a new pair with every bag of fried rice or whatever. and no way would they ever be good for more than one meal. often they're barely good for ONE meal. i see why it's a bad thing to have so many disposable chopsticks (goodbye trees in china), but... but i agree with someone on npr today who noted that they're worried about what that'll do to sanitary issues. there's a reason that, before you go to china, people recommend you always pick disposable chopsticks over plastic washed ones. i've seen dishes washed in china. forget using their chopsticks. i'll just start carrying my own pair around if it comes to that.