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Sheffield United midfielder Tom Davies used to catch the headlines for his fashion sense. He was for example once spotted at New York Fashion Week with his former Everton teammate Dominic Calvert-Lewin wearing a dressing gown. Nowadays, the 26-year-old is focused on other things and is running a business that turns used chopsticks into furniture.

Davies has been working hard to make a difference in the world. Besides being a professional footballer for Sheffield United, he is the managing director of ChopValue UK, an organisation that collects used chopsticks from restaurants and recycles them into furniture. The organisation opened last month, but in an interview with Forbes, Davies stated that they have been collecting 100,000 chopsticks a week from the Manchester and Liverpool area for the last year. 

Sustainability

Although football is still his biggest passion, Davies has always had an interest in sustainability, the planet, and the environment. ‘’As you get older, you start to see other things, going to these places seeing litter or seeing homeless people suffering on the streets in Liverpool. It’s something I can affect right now to hopefully make a difference.’’

‘’I used to be really into fashion, but now there are more important things to think about, like sustainability and community development,’’ says the footballer. ‘’Football is slowly catching up when it comes to reducing its carbon footprint through things like carbon-neutral games or Everton trying to make their new stadium as sustainable as possible. Footballers can help make fans aware of these issues and then it’s up to the fans to make their own decisions.’’

ChopValue UK aims to turn 25 million chopsticks into recycled products next year, which would save up to 1,2 million kilograms of CO2 emissions. ‘’I’m so proud of what we do making a beautiful product from a material that was once considered waste,’’ says Davies on his Instagram. ‘’We want to continue to grow across the UK and Ireland aiming to recycle every chopstick that is used.’’

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