This week in Circular Economy in Japan (30 April)

Wood tableware designed by Kengo Kuma

Hide K 1896 Co. Ltd. introduces the “Les Trois Collection” tableware, designed by famed architect Kengo Kuma, and utilizes the environmentally conscious material “TRANSWOOD.” The company’s mission, rooted in value creation and regeneration, has led to the development of “Reiwa Modernism.” This lifestyle harmoniously blends advanced technology with cultural sensibilities.

Kengo Kuma’s “Les Trois Collection” offers a versatile and elegant dining experience with just three dishes. Each piece, crafted from “TRANSWOOD,” a blend of biomass resin and waste cooking oil, showcases the unique beauty of wood while being eco-friendly and recyclable.

Asahi Yours starts project to upcycle coffee

Asahi Yours Corporation, founded in January 2022, is initiating the “Coffeeloop Project” to create a circular economy by upcycling coffee by-products from offices and cafes. Their first endeavor is the eco-friendly “Coffeeloop Cup,” made without new plastic, which will be introduced in Tokyo cafes from mid-April.

The “Coffeeloop Cup” is produced using post-extraction coffee grounds, thinned wood powder, and recycled polypropylene. Although a plastic material, the polypropylene is sourced from Menicon’s contact lens factory offcuts, avoiding new plastic usage. Yamanaka lacquerware artisans apply a traditional “lacquer” coating to the cup’s surface, ensuring durability for commercial dishwashers.

Ajinomoto AGF will also participate in the project, collaborating to broaden the adoption of the “Coffeeloop Cup” and working together on creating products upcycled from coffee by-products that arise during their factory’s change of coffee varieties.

JST establishes new portal for school initiatives

The Japan Science and Technology Agency’s (JST) “Collaborative Creation Space Formation Support Program (COI-NEXT)” regional co-creation project, titled “Respect-Connected Coexistence Upcycle Society Collaborative Creation Base,” has recently launched a special website, “Become a Circular Person,” as a portal for upcoming school initiatives.

The plan involves organizing representative environmental and creative education cases for elementary and junior high school students in Kamakura City around three main concepts: “Circulating in Society,” “Returning to Earth,” and “Passing on to the Future.” Concurrently, the project aims to further co-creation activities to build a comprehensive “circular person education” curriculum that integrates these three aspects at an advanced level.

Furthermore, they introduced the “Snail Model,” a concept easy for elementary school students to grasp, illustrating a town that progresses slowly and steadily toward the future with interconnected flow-type, stock-type, and biological circulation systems.