Introducing TerraDesk: Climate Positive, Carbon Negative Sit-Stand Desk Solutions for Your Office

This month, EFFYDESK has partnered with ChopValue to bring you a whole different kind of standing desk. Our new TerraDesk tabletop is eco-friendly, durable, and... it’s made entirely out of recycled chopsticks! 

You read that right! Each TerraDesk tabletop saves 10,854 chopsticks from the landfill. These chopstick tabletops are extremely durable: they’re stronger than oak and harder than maple. The use of sustainable materials gives you earth-friendly, commercial-grade quality on every desk. The finished product is a warm, sleek design that will complement any office style. 

So how does a bag full of chopsticks turn into a desk?

Since its beginnings in 2016, Vancouver-based company ChopValue has collected and recycled over 32.7 million chopsticks (and counting!) that would otherwise have gone straight into a landfill. How do they do it? 

It’s not hard for ChopValue to collect chopsticks--over 100,000 disposable chopsticks get thrown out in Metro Vancouver every day. Company founder Felix Böck partnered with restaurants to set up collection bins for his “urban harvest” of these used chopsticks. 

From there, it’s just a simple matter of driving around the city to collect bags full of chopsticks. Every week, ChopValue drivers pick up around 350,000 chopsticks and take them back to ChopValue’s processing centre. 

The chopsticks are sorted and sanitized at the company’s micro-factory. After a coat of resin, they go into an ultra-hot oven to kill any and all bacteria present. The chopsticks don’t get washed with water, and this minimizes the amount of water waste the micro-factory produces. 

“We don’t just call it recycling, we think of it as a climate-positive transformation into a newly engineered material, which we use to make our products,” says Böck. 

The resin used on the chopsticks are free from urea and formaldehyde, which makes it an eco-friendly alternative to standard industry resins. 

Once the chopsticks are clean, they’re pressed into trays by powerful hydraulic presses. The resin on the chopsticks, when heated and pressed, forms powerful bonds that hold the chopsticks tight to each other. The result is a sturdy composite that can be shaped into tiles or boards, ready for their transformation into bookshelves, wall decor, and in our case, tabletops! 

What Can I Expect From My TerraDesk?

The EFFYDESK TerraDesk tabletops are made of about 10,000 recycled chopsticks. With ChopValue’s innovative engineered material and EFFYDESK’s powerful electric dual-motor system, this standing desk brings you the perfect combination of eco-friendly, ergonomic comfort. 

Plus, how cool is it to point to your desk and say, “That’s ten thousand chopsticks, right there!”

Each ultra-durable tabletop is crafted and finished by hand to ensure a beautiful, one-of-a-kind table for your office. This process is also carbon negative, which means this desk is storing more carbon than the entire process creates. 

This desk is great for the planet--even right down to the packaging. Your tabletop will be shipped to you in eco-friendly packaging that uses a hexacomb design for maximum protection when it’s on its way to you! The corners are reinforced to minimize damage to your desk. And when it arrives at your doorstep, you can just carry it in with the box handles, which greatly improve the ergonomics of moving the desk indoors.

Ready to get Eco- and Ergo-friendly with us?

At EFFYDESK — we design, mould, and deliver the best Electric Standing Desk for professional or personal use. Our award-winning ergonomic office chairs ensure that office workers are protected against desk job damage, and are well-equipped to maximize efficiency and morale in the workplace — wherever that may be for you.

Browse our signature Standing Desks, Office Chairs, and Monitor Mounts designed to boost workplace productivity, so you can get more done, more comfortably. 

To learn more about EFFYDESK’s products and services, be sure to check out our FAQ page or browse the blog archive for other helpful articles on ergonomics in the workplace.