Wooden Boats Made from Cafeteria Trash

What becomes of all those disposable chopsticks after they pinch their last egg roll? They end up floating Shuhei Ogawara in Lake Inawahiro, at least that is how 7382 of them ended up. Ogawara, a former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Koriyama got fed up watching chopsticks, perfectly good wood, go to waste after just one use. He spent the next two years collecting the used utensils at his City Hall cafeteria and then 3 months gluing them together to make a 13 foot canoe. Ogawara, who’s job had him working with the local forestry industry, is an experienced canoe builder. His chopstick canoe weighs 66 lbs, a little more than the average cedar canoe, but he is confident that it is seaworthy and plans to launch this may in Lake Inawahiro.

7382 chopsticks, that is a lot, however not when compared to the 15 million popsicle sticks that went into making this bad boy…

Captain Rob McDonald, along with two friends fashioned this Scandinavian vessel from 15 million popsicle sticks and 6 tons of glue. It measures 49 feet long and 23 feet high. This boat is currently on a voyage across the Atlantic. You can read about this project at McDonald’s site, obvikingship.com. They have a captains log but it hasn’t been updated recently, but according to this site as of today Capt. Rob reports that things are “going well”.