BEIJING — Those eat-and-toss disposable wooden chopsticks are coming under fire in China as unfriendly to the environment.

The head of the China Cuisine Association, Bian Jiang, was quoted yesterday as urging people to abandon those wooden chopsticks ahead of next year's Olympics.

China produces and discards more than 45 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks a year, at a cost to the environment of about 25 million trees, Bian told China Daily.

"That's a heavy blow to the country's dwindling forests," he told the newspaper.

Last year, China imposed a 5 percent consumption tax on wooden chopsticks to try to discourage their use.

So far, though, it is largely university students who are picking up on the drive to give up disposable chopsticks. Last month, groups at nine universities agreed to fight for reusable chopsticks, including providing covers for students to carry the utensils with them.

The English term "chopsticks" is derived from pidgin English spoken in former British Chinese colonies.

The Chinese term kuaizi ("quick ones") became chop (pidgin for "quick") sticks.