Agreed that bamboo is a type of grass.
About 45 percent of disposable chopsticks are made from trees like cotton wood, birch, and spruce, while the remainder are made from bamboo.
This article explains the problem of disposable chopsticks, on restaurants, national level:
https://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/disposable-chopsticks-strip-asian-forests/
I’d suggest one issue around usability for disposable chopsticks. The way its cut- flat surface on all sides, and the material- coarse wood, makes them difficult to separate and move against each other, thus making them difficult to pick up food easily.
All non-disposable chopsticks are made with smooth surfaces and cross-sections with some contours- bamboo, melamine, metal. They all have its own pros and cons. But all are easier to ‘maneuver’.
To me, after using melamine extensively early on, and after trying bamboo and metal in recent years, I prefer melamine. And in general I don’t like sticking plastic in my mouth. But I still prefer melamine.
Weight- metal is heaviest, bamboo is lightest. Melamine has a good weight and it doesn’t just fall out of my hand because it weighs.
Bamboo- handwashing airdrying them- they tend to develop mold after a while.
One other consideration, if you are the type who occasionally bite on your utensil by accident, bamboo probably won’t crack your teeth while the other two will.
Shapewise- I prefer those that slims slightly from the top, but not extensively like those Japanese metal chopsticks. That’s a personal preference.
Not to nickpicking, but just want to point out that many of the metal chopsticks are not really high grade, they are very hollow. Many of them are lighter than hardwood solid choptick in my opinion.
I am going to go with the packet of 100, I didn’t realize how inexpensive they were! thanks
BUT I will beware of knock offs, A chinese restaurant I worked at bought the cheapest chopsticks, in a white wrapper stuck together at the top, they had shards of wood visible after opening them
ugh
Some of the better quality ones, they are roundish shape bamboo, and they weren’t joined at the top, and each individual pair in transparent plastic wrapper.
Given that I don’t consider bamboo chopsticks disposable, and have been sticking them in my dishwasher for years, I do have a question. Am I the only person who has to rinse off little bits and pieces of whatever from the chopsticks when I take them out of the dishwasher? I lay them flat in a silverware tray rather than standing them up in a basket, if that matters. (If I stand them up, they go through the holes in the bottom of the basket.)
My chopstick collection runs the gamut from fancy lacquered Japanese chopsticks to cheap bamboo ‘disposables’ (that I wash and reuse forever) to 18" cooking chopsticks and many kinds in between, including some titanium pairs that come with fancy cases for travel. I handwash all of them, though. I hand wash the lacquered ones because the intensely hot water can strip off the lacquer in a the dishwasher. I hand wash the cheap bamboo ones because they can warp from either the dishwasher’s hot water or the heated drying cycle (I’m not sure which is the culprit, TBH). I tend to care for my chopsticks in much the same way I care for my knives: no soaking, hand wash immediately after use, dry thoroughly before putting away.
Bamboo chopsticks in the dishwasher clean up fine for me, no bits and pieces left. I can stand them up at an angle in the cutlery basket.
I just checked, and the holes in my cutlery basket are just the right size for the chopsticks to slip through. 
I have some decent Japanese chopsticks, but none at the real high price point yet. I think have natural wood (eco, green…) at $10 a pair. However, there are those really nice ones at $30-100 a pair.
I have this set of 10, wood but not sure what type of wood, which I received as a gift on a visit from the manager of the law firm handling our patents in China. This was I guess 12-13 years ago.
The 6 pairs not in the box have enjoyed frequent use and are always hand washed then dried. On some of them the tips are looking a bit worn (sometimes the kids would wash and stand them in the small sink to dry, affecting the tips), but otherwise they’re still in great shape.
We also have odds-n-ends pairs, some round profile bamboo “disposable”, some plastic, etc.
The case (above) is a stiff paperboard with the flap having magnetic closures.
Does upside down work?
Good idea to use them in the garden.
Stand them up by the handle end in the sink to dry. It exposes the business ends to greater air circulation and protects them from wear and knocks.
Well, duh! Yes, it works–I’m clearly not very good at spatial puzzles. Thanks!
I like the lacquered Japanese sticks with slightly roughened ends. They have, so far, lasted nearly fifty years of fairly frequent use.
There are good quality Japanese lacquered chopsticks and poor ones. The good ones will last longer, but a lot has to do with care taking too.
A cutting board is a good analogy. There are crappy cutting board that do not last long no matter how careful I am. On the flip side, even a carefully constructed cutting board cannot survive long when it is not taken care off.
And a follow-up: I put the chopsticks in the cutlery basket upside down, and in spite of appearing to be too large to slip through, one did manage to slip through and jammed the bottom rack until I figured out what had happened. I suspect there is a slight size difference among the chopsticks. Oh, well, back to the old method…
