Here's the original article

"Course Correctors", opening Thursday, highlights modern companies "mitigating destructive aspects of industrial production."

 News release from Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation.

WALTHAM, MA — A new exhibit at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation opens on Thursday, August 22, 2024, featuring modern manufacturer ChopValue and its Boston-area production facility located in Charlestown.

This is the second exhibit in a new series by the Charles River Museum called “Course Correctors,” spotlighting companies, from local to multi-national, remedying undesirable consequences of industry.

ChopValue utilizes a highly innovative manufacturing business model. In micro factories they transform hyperlocal raw materials previously destined for landfills into superior-quality products sold in local and regional markets.

ChopValue (https://chopvalue.com/) is part of the circular economy, whereby they collect used bamboo chopsticks from local restaurants and remanufacture them in micro-factories into a broad range of premium, wood-alternative consumer products that are then sold in the same local area.

ChopValue is an exemplar of course-correcting sustainability, creating useful, attractive, and long-lived products not by harvesting woodlands but by repurposing what would otherwise be waste material sent to landfills. Their model of decentralized manufacturing in local micro-factories simplifies logistics, minimizes transport miles for both raw materials and finished products thereby ensuring the smallest possible carbon footprint, and creates local jobs.

From the Museum’s executive director, Bob Perry: “It has long been typical of museums to focus on the most appealing qualities of the subjects they illuminate. On industrial subjects, it had historically been the practice of the Charles River Museum to exhibit primarily on the positive aspects of products, companies, and industries.

Social inequity... environmental damage... climate impact... economic imbalance... resource exploitation... waste... These issues and more are also consequences of the more than two centuries of American industrial decision-making and dominance and should not be ignored. Reflecting that imperative, we now seek to recognize and educate on companies like ChopValue that are leading us in a more mindful, responsible direction.”

From ChopValue Boston owner, Elaine Chow: “ChopValue Boston is a pioneer within this space, as one of the very few fully circular businesses in our area. We were also the first U.S. location for the ChopValue franchise network, introducing this innovative product and process in our community. Each year, ChopValue Boston diverts 20 tons of material, or over 303,000 chopsticks, from landfills.”

The “Course Correctors” series of exhibits confronts negative aspects of industry’s legacy by raising awareness of contemporary companies whose people, processes, and products seek to profitably mitigate historically destructive effects that various industries have had on our world.