Chic Goods Made from Waste

Japan has ideas out the gazoo when it comes to recycling.  At an upmarket residential area in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward one man is making colorful accent rugs from old clothes, 1960’s-style lamp shades from corrugated plastic board, and  candleholders from old bicycle chains. It’s called the ecoprinka brand with the aim of  “Co-existence with the Earth means enjoying doing ecologically conscious things.”

Another store offers furniture and household goods with a 1960s design with products that have been used for multiple generations of customers. You can buy a motorcycle seat with pipe legs for Y50,000 ($475).

A Finnish ec0-oriented design by Secco attracts young Japanese consumers to bags and cell phone straps made from discarded tire tubes and keyboards. Retailers throughout Japan carry the products. But…the truth of the matter is people often buy discarded or recycled products = junk, only to realize they don’t like the design and they become waste again.

So, are these products really being reused, recycled, or are some people just making money off of other’s guilt at not being ‘green’ enough? It seems to me to be the latter.

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