

Hundreds of baseball bats are broken by pro baseball players over the course of a season in the Nippon Professional Baseball league. The bits & pieces don't go to waste, however, instead being reborn into cool chopsticks carrying NPB team names, colors and logos.











They're called "Kattobashi", a play on words from "KATTOBASE!!", Japanese for "make a big hit" which is a term often heard (and heard often) at the ballpark. Also heard often is the crack of the bat - not only against the stitched horsehide sphere.

Broken bats are commonplace at all levels of the game where wooden bats are used. One might wonder where broken bats from North American MLB games end up, but in Japan they're remade into Kattobashi.

Collectors love 'em, as the team names, logos and colors impressed into the chopsticks encourage fans to collect a pair from each pro team.



The recycled chopsticks also act to reduce the number of disposable wooden chopsticks used and discarded daily, a huge problem for the environment.



Fans are far more likely to take their Kattobashi chopsticks with them when they dine, cleaning them when they return home and using them until they eventually break.

What happens then? We're not sure... hopefully someone will come along and recycle them into tiny baseball bats. (via Eco-Friendly Japan, Yahoo Japan and Rakuten)