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Cool Eco Products
23/JAN/2010 on air

Some cool recycled products are available at Le Garage in Roppongi.
Both seat belt bag and tube bag are from used vehicles. Antique -look candle holder is made of beer cans. The pouches that are made of beverage labels and candy wrappers have been popular among foreign celebs, too.

The episode refers to the new type of second hand clothes shop in Japan as well as “recessionistas” who enjoy making only one unique item from second hand clothes shops at Koenji, Tokyo.

Speaking of eco some time ago, it may have sounded a bit unsophisticated, but nowadays it’s something cool!

Mr. Ikki and Beni-chan visited Winroader Ecoland logistics center.
It’s a warehouse where disused goods from home or office are stored. The weigh of those goods is as much as 10 tons and that is accumulated everyday!
Every year around 2.6 million tons of unwanted items are thrown in Japan. (>_<)
Winroader is a company that used to collect rubbish but nowadays they modify the rubbish to make something cool and sell it.

There are 3 points when we consider remaking rubbish.
1) It must be something from which we can produce as many products as possible.
(i.e. computer keyboard)
2) It must be easy to use.
3) It must be from the rubbish that is often thrown away.

Sugimoto-san is an accessory designer who makes cute accessories from scraps.
The pierced earrings from the combination of computer parts and peal beads are nice.
3 male students are the group of making sustainable designed products.

Beni-chan with Sugimoto-san, Mr. Ikki with the 3 students group, they started to make eco products from the scraps.
The time limit for the project is 1 hour.
Mr. Masuda, who has been a member of jury for Good Design Award for over 20 years, is overlooking the project.

Sapporo eco design contest was something very interesting.
Especially the wine bottle lamp shade was so great that it was already commercialized by
SECCO from Finland. The lamp shade is sold for about 40,000yen and is so popular around Europe.
Who invented and created it?
Kusumoto-san is a glassworks artisan who lives and works in Hokkaido.
How does she make the lamp shade?
She first cut the neck of the wine bottle and connect 13 wine bottles one another by soldering.
The lamp shade with 35 wine bottles is 52,500yen. She acquires wine bottles from a bar in Sapporo for free. She has created several other works from other parts of wine bottles too.

Some students want to be an eco product creator.

Beni-chan and Sugimoto-san decided to make cute accessories while Mr. Ikki and 3 students thought of spinning shelf.

It’s been a while since eco bag has become popular. How do people make use of it?
It’s originally the item for something pro-environment. But in Japan it looks like a part of fashion. Some people have 7 eco bags for example, while there are people who can pay as much as 170,000yen (USD1900) for a Hermes eco bag.

The woman at a creaning store in Yamagata prefecture is good at remodeling the old clothes into an eco bag.
This is the true meaning of eco bag.

The eco products created by Beni-chan and Mr. Ikki will be shared at the next episode.

Kirin’s opinion:
I think it’s really cool to create something kawaii from what people threw away. I like the wine bottle lamp shade, too.
Things can be used in different ways before they are thrown away. But our time and space is so limited that we cannot help throwing them away. If we lead a slow life, our life can be so creative and fun.

The episode that succeeds to this episode will be posted tomorrow so please come back to check what happened to Beni-chan and Mr. Ikki’s eco product project.

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