TUCSON, Ariz. — As American society becomes increasingly consumed with living green, there are still several small aspects that go largely unnoticed.

While many take pride in recycling and doing anything they can to save a tree, one small recyclable utensil often gets overlooked: chopsticks.

“It’s pretty odd, because I always think to recycle my newspaper, but I never thought about how many wooden chopsticks I use,” said Greg Burris, a frequent customer at Ra Sushi Bar, 2905 E. Skyline Drive.

“I’ve never received one complaint about how many chopsticks we use,” said Ra Sushi manager Jamie Rice.

Rice estimates his restaurant uses between 3,000-4,000 pairs of chopsticks a week.

The heavy use of disposable chopsticks has been a hot issue in China, since the Chinese government imposed a 5 percent tax on wooden chopsticks in 2006.

China has taken steps toward curbing its disposable chopstick use in an effort to reduce deforestation.

Greenpeace China’s spokesman Wang Xiaojun talks about making disposable chopsticks in this NPR article. “China cuts down enough forests each day to cover an area the size of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.”

Locally many Asian restaurants use wooden chopsticks according to Miss Saigon server Vinny Tran, who has worked at many Asian restaurants.

The restaurant at 1072 N. Campbell Ave. is one of the few places that uses plastic, reusable chopsticks.

“We’ve used the plastic chopsticks since we opened eights years ago,” Tran said. “But we do switch out the plastic chopsticks every month because they are only good for about a month.”

Tran added that most Vietnamese restaurants use reusable chopsticks, while most Chinese and Japanese restaurants use wooden chopsticks.

Miss Saigon still provides wooden chopsticks with its to-go and delivery orders and Tran estimates the restaurant uses 500 pairs of wooden chopsticks a week.

Yuki’s Sushi and Japanese Restaurant uses approximately 1,000 wooden chopsticks a week, according to server Chris San Jose, but the restaurant has found other ways to recycle.

“Our owner got smart and started to reuse the glass bottles the sake comes in,” San Jose said. “Drunk people were always breaking our ceramic containers, now we just reuse the bottles the cold sake comes in and we heat it up.”

San Jose said his Yuki’s Sushi, 2962 N. Campbell Ave., still uses a lot of chopsticks though.

“Sake bombers also enjoy using the chopsticks for their drinks, so they are not even using them to eat and they are pretty much going to waste,” San Jose added. “No one really cares what wood they are made out of or where they come from. The only complaints I’ve got are the size and shape of the sticks.”

Rice said that although there are a few who do bring their own specialty chopsticks, the majority do not.

He did add, however, that Ra Sushi recycles all its cardboard boxes, oil and noted that their used grease is removed by a company that reuses it for biofuel.