The Campaign

Disposable chopsticks endanger our health (whitened with chemicals), forests and the wildlife around (deforestation); and for what? A single use of 25 minutes in average, before being thrown away. We even have reached a point where, at work or in our homes, we have a locker full of unpacked disposable chopsticks; that’s insane. So why are we still consuming them? Obviously because there weren’t any real alternatives to disposable chopsticks. Well we do have now, and it’s called Edible Chopsticks: Chopsticks you can actually eat. Our product also has a long shelf life of more than 10 months, and if you don’t want to eat it, you can just throw it away; it decomposes within a week. Our packaging is made from 100%-recycled paper, it’s completely sustainable.

Creative Execution

We partnered with a food factory in the province of Anhui, Shui Fu You Qing, to create and develop our Edible Chopsticks. Certified by China’s food safety authorities, made and packaged by local communities, the project provides hundreds of jobs along the way. Our packaging is made from 100%-recycled paper, it’s completely sustainable. We wanted our design to be as appealing as a candy bar; bright, colorful, and mouth-watering. Eleme already partnered with 43 major restaurants chains* in the country, spreading our Edible chopsticks. Within a week, 250 000 pairs have been spread out. And it’s only the beginning, since Eleme will progressively announce new restaurants’ partnerships in the coming weeks.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

Within the first week of launch, we already distributed a total of 250 000 pairs of edible chopsticks, nationwide with the help of 43 major restaurant chains, and our fleet of delivery men. By the end of the year, we aim to partner with a hundred restaurant chains, to spread out around 10 million of edible chopsticks. Restaurant partners registered in average an increase of 30% more orders than the usual; mostly driven by consumers’ desire to try this new product. We also noticed a change of behavior since the beginning of the program, as we noted a drop of 60% in disposable chopsticks’ orders on the app; Edible chopsticks is more than a sustainable alternative, it’s also an extremely powerful awareness tool.