Wooden kitchen utensils beat plastic hands down in my opinion. For on thing, A wooden spoon doesn’t melt when you accidentally leave it in a hot pan. I remember the way the edge plastic spatulas used to deform over time. Wooden spatulas get dull, but I just sharpen them.
I think it is better to buy locally made items. Since the vast majority of my readers are American, I will suggest a site like Handcraftedwoodenspoons.com as a ‘local’ source. Keeping an eye out while you’re in local kitchens and asking questions might lead you to something more local. If you can find them, items made from wood derived from agriculture endeavors like Apple or Olive are great. If you buy inexpensive wooden items that come with no explanation of their species or origin, you might be buying something that was harvested unsustainably. We have several spatulas and spoons made of olive wood. I thought it was a kind of homey thing to buy, but when I Googled ‘olive wood spoon’ I found out that fancy chef suppliers carry them. We paid 1/15 what they are charging. I once bought a wooden spoon at a government funded pioneer village kind of place in the middle of nowhere in Canada.
Most of the mass produced utensils are made of beechwood. I assume that this is because its physical properties make it suitable for mechanized production. It could also have something to do with the fact that it grows in China.
I think disposable wooden utensils are almost as bad as plastic. Disposable wooden chopsticks are a problem in China and elsewhere.
