A new eco project

Recently Japan has had many energy saving projects. We have Uchimizu project, coolbiz project, (Koizumi san looks like a guru of cult religion. , mottainai project, and candle night project.

Now the conceiver of the coolbiz project, the Minister of the Environment Yuriko Koike makes a new suggestion "Furoshiki project". It's another small project "Let's use Furoshiki".Furoshiki is a Japanese traditional wrapping cloth. The new project suggest we use Furoshiki, then cut back on using plastic or paper shopping bag. Now we can see Furoshiki as highly recommend item in the shop. Printemps Ginza is one of the popular shop for young girls. Their employee had a Furoshiki day appealing to the Furoshiki Project. It's not so bad right?

Furoshiki is just a square cloth. You may think it would be inconvenient but when you get used to it, it is more convenient than you suppose :-) Here is a site that show various ways of wrapping with Furoshiki. Although it is Japanese web, you can see "how to" from the illustrations. For example, here is how to wrap two bottles, how to wrap triangle item, how to wrap a ball. When you wrap some gift, Furoshiki can make it gorgeous like this, this, this. And Furoshiki can be basket, backpack. There are many cute Furoshiki you can try one. I want to try such design. Since it is just square clothe, any cloth is okay. How about trying your scarf?

related link
Uchimizu project
Coolbiz project

Comments

[Air Jordan shoes]

Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.

[furoshiki]

Its saving the world, once piece of cloth at a time :)

[Princess Haiku]

I think the idea of using furoshiki to wrap things, is lovely as well as pro-environment. Now I have to learn all those folds!

[Dave7]

I can see the downside of plastic usage and having a shopping bag (even if it comes across as "unmanly" in american society) would be nice but for those of us who don't live within walking distance to a market and tend to shop in larger amounts, we really find using plastic market bags are best, especially as paper rips or refuses to stay together and cloth bags are simply useless for such amounts.

On a side note "it's OK when a government has to be paternalistic, and tell us what to do! " -- Wow, that's ..yikes. I'm sure the poster meant it differently but that kind of wording scares me. LOL. Sorry, off-topic, I know..

[Ameotoko]

I think furoshiki are a very good idea. I heard they were losing popularity in Japan because of plastic bags, but now they are coming back into style. Yokkatta! Maybe if people had more stylish ways of being environmentally conscious, then they would be more likely to do so.

Japan has always seemed to be ahead of many other countries in terms of being environmentally responsible. Japan's recycling program is very advanced. It would not work in the US because people are too lazy to do so much work sorting their garbage. I know I have to do it only once per week, and it takes me 30 minutes but I complain to myself the whole time!

[Heather james]

i lived in ireland, where they instituted a bag tax... it went very smoothyl, and instantly people got less plastic bags and switched to bringing reuseable bags. it's OK when a government has to be paternalistic, and tell us what to do! most of the time, we care, but we're just lazy.

the cloth-wrapping sounds lovely, and probably more practical in japan, where they often have two people at the cash register for customers.

[Martin]

I think everyone should pay 5-10 yen for plastic bags when they go shopping. Then more people would bring their own cloth bags, and waste less fossil fuel... Plus you can have your own cool cloth bag, rather than a silly platic bag that says "Family Mart" ;)

[Claytonain]

I use my scarf as an impromptu furoshiki to carry home milk cartons from school.

[Kaishin]

I am expecting something else beside Furoshiki that might happen in the near future in Japan as an eco-project: Fundoshi!! an extended version of cool-biz ^^

[reri]

Hi, i've just found your page, and i like it! The idea of saving energy is nice. My country should have done it since before, but the government never really think it serious though... >____<

Anyway, nice to meet you! I'm reri, and i live in Indonesia.. ^^

[bshock]

I admire these efforts to save energy and resources, but I think they are only a beginning.

Of course, I wish we could make such a beginning in the U.S. Instead, everyone here goes out to buy another SUV.