I try to live my life in an Eco-friendly manner. I shop locally, I drive as little as possible, I take a lot of pride in recycling as much as possible. I am proud to say that we only take out 1 small garbage bag every week. As such, I greatly value durable, long lasting products which help me to cut back on the amount of waste my household produces. The longer products last, the less I have to throw out worn ones and buy new ones. My 7-year pen from Seltzer Goods is one of my favourite purchases of late, cutting back on the number of disposable pens I throw in the garbage. Last week I enjoyed shopping at Pieri, a newly re-opened shopping mall in Moriyama, Shiga prefecture, with my family.
While there we stumbled across a wonderful little shop (originally from Hyogo prefecture) which sold hand-made goods from around Japan. All of the goods were made from almost 100% recycled materials such as leather off-cuts from factories, up-cycled wood from old furniture and accessories made from recycled metal and wire bits. I bought a cafe tray for our English school’s drink bar made from recycled wood. I was particularly interested in a series of bags made from old fire hose. Having served as a volunteer firefighter in both Canada and Japan, I have seen a lot of burst or leaking hoses thrown into the garbage. Fire hose is very expensive stuff, made of heavy but flexible rubber wrapped in strongly woven clothe. Waterproof, strong, stiff yet pliable, fire hoses are incredibly durable and are an excellent material for making long-lasting products. This company, Hito+ (ヒト・プラス) takes old fire hoses, cleans them, cuts them open, flattens them and makes them into the most durable and funky urban bags. I imagine these bags would last almost forever. What a great, Eco-friendly product!
Edward, Smith’s School of English Otsu
Leave a Reply