Tokyo

2:08 PM

I must warn you, we're really early in the process, so if you're about to open one tomorrow you should def go ahead

(edited)

That's awesome, I completely understand that space is a major problem in tokyo, but I would absolutely love to be a part of this in any way possible

but either way we'd love to chat more about the details!

2:10 PM

Awesome

I'm actually a sofubi producer, i've been making soft vinyl art toys for the past 4 years and when I moved to tokyo 5 months ago I now work directly with factories and that's what really kicked me in the head about sustainability and eco consciousness.

oooooooo

my current project is to develop an exhibition to raise awareness for recycling.

Oh wow, that's awesome

I'm really interested in where you're at currently, what ideas you have and anything i can do to contribute

A little about my creative partner and I , she is a multidiscipline artist and director who has had a large focus in TV and music in her lifetime, I am an engineering, designer, sometimes artist who has working in a variety of mediums, both physical and digital including some light manufacturing work, both of us having a bent towards environmental and social equality, but with lots of play

I love creative minds tackling problems like this, I feel like the more people see that recycling can be a viable form of creation and expression then more people will want to participate as well

1

Totally!

2:22 PM

We're currently very early stage, the things we know are that there is that people would like to learn more and would love to help in simple ways

2:22 PM

The things we would like to do is have room for design work and room to teach

2:22 PM

What those look like is part of the discussion

do you have any ideas for potential locations? I'm in tokyo as well, my wife and I moved here from NYC last summer (she's from here, I'm not, lol)

A few routes we've been thinking of are supporting the growing interior architecture community in Tokyo, being able to make curated and one off pieces for build outs as well as working with other light manufacturing to be able to build specialized pieces that normally would have to be ordered from the manufacturer (and are not cheap)

2:27 PM

That's another thing we're trying to evaluate, we've only just started talking to friends who have connections into the ward community govt, in part trying to evaluate if we could get a subsidized space

2:28 PM

That's amzing!! I'm from NYC as well hahaha

2:29 PM

Unfortunately I'm stuck in the states at the moment, offline from this conversation I'd love to talk about how you made it to Tokyo last summer!!

lol, if you've got instagram shoot me a message The_Sleeping_naps

Small world

I'm Anthony BTW, nice to meet you

Great to meet you too

2:32 PM

just messaged you on IG

I've managed to find a decent amount of interest in the circles I'm part of, and a handful of factories that have sustainability and recycling in mind (though mainly on the backburner) so I feel like I'm at the point where I want to not only want to show these factories/companies/and artists a proof of concept and show them that these things are worth their investments and time, but also to provide the general public with access to machines to experiment and learn with as well

Yes!!

2:36 PM

We def want to have that public access availability of the space, the machines (PP and other) and teaching

I have a small studio space at my in-laws where I do my sculpting work that I wanted to set up in to begin with, but the idea of an actual location open to the public is much more appetizing. I have a few friends with their own personal machines and there's a lot of attention, but I want other people to have hands on experience

oh wow!! Is the studio space in Tokyo? And these folks with personal machines?

My spot is in east tokyo, yeah, but all of my friends with machines are in the states

2:39 PM

they're a lot more accessible there, sadly

Oh yea of course

2:39 PM

The plan is to build/commission the building of our machines in Japan (edited)

2:41 PM

Hmm if you have the patience to read a bunch it might make more sense to share what we've written up so far

2:41 PM

And see how it sounds to you!

Hey guys! My girlfriend and I are also interested in plastic recycling in the Tokyo area, but we'll be there only next year. She's been active in various animal and environment protection ボランティア groups (animal shelters, trash picking, ...) and would like to start a business with reducing plastic waste. I do user experience research, currently in academia. What do you think would be a good way to follow some updates or to stay in touch?

7:04 PM

I don't know how long these threads stay active and readable

Hey @Alarith Uhde (Tokyo University) !! Ah that’s awesome to hear! @RingoBombingo(naps) and I were were preparing materials to share with each other, happy to loop you in as well! I can only speak to my partners’ and my plan at the moment, here (Discord) would be a great place to stay in touch or my email is yo.ian.g@gmail.com and often my preferred method (edited)

Yessss, the more the merrier. I'm happy to hear the interest is growing in Tokyo. I'm living here currently and will be for the foreseeable future. I'm happy to get involved in person here if there are any contacts I can reach out to

Alarith Uhde (Tokyo University)

Hey guys! My girlfriend and I are also interested in plastic recycling in the Tokyo area, but we'll be there only next year. She's been active in various animal and environment protection ボランティア groups (animal shelters, trash picking, ...) and would like to start a business with reducing plastic waste. I do user experience research, currently in academia. What do you think would be a good way to follow some updates or to stay in touch?

I'll admit i'm not the best on discord so i think a group email would work well. Mosspeople@gmail.com if you want to send us both an email to get things started.

I don't know if the last message sent, but my email is mosspeople@gmail.com feel free to shoot us a group email and I'll fill you in on where I'm at

Great, thanks! I'll email you guys!

Maybe a few other things about us: I'm from Germany, which is also where we live at the moment. We've recently thought a lot about feasible and meaningful business ideas around recycling and currently ended up somewhere that seems to make sense but not too much money

Big scale recycling is coming in the industry, and I'm pretty sure that will also become a thing in Japan at some point. It's just too good of a business model: You pick trash and take money for it, recycle it in automated factories, and sell it as new plastic. Here's one video we found that is discouraging for small business startups but encouraging for the environment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_fUpP-hq3A

VDI Zentrum Ressourceneffizienz

Recycling plastics – Resource efficiency with an optimized sorting ...

So we thought we should go into some other niches: Getting plastic from resources that are inaccessible to big industry, such as stuff people leave on beaches etc. The quality of material might be worse and it's really inefficient to collect, but on the other hand, that would actually make a difference. The other point would be to produce something that reduces new plastic consumption on the long run. Off the top of my mind, I'd guess the largest sources of plastic trash in Japan are plastic bags, bento packaging from the konbini, and household waste, e.g. soap packaging etc. We'd like to directly reduce plastic use at these points before we even have to recycle it, for example through reusable packaging (great idea if it's 2004 or so) or other forms of using household items that don't need so much packaging

7:50 AM

there are a lot of startups in Germany who offer reusable packaging, e.g., for coffee cups or lunch boxes. But their approaches are mostly based on a platform business idea, and probably there are similar startups in Japan as well (now that I think about it, I heard about some sort of umbrella sharing platform thing a few years back).

7:51 AM

Another important point from our perspective would be to raise awareness. Running workshops etc. could be a good thing.

7:55 AM

Not sure what you guys think about all of that. In any case, tools and space are expensive for all of us, so I hope we can collaborate somehow

8:01 AM

For both of your production ideas (specialized interior design and sculpting if I got it right?) it seems like you need some way to create non-standard shapes, right? In the Precious Plastic system, I could see the extrusion approach as one way to go, or pressing large plates and carpenting them together. But I'd be curious to hear what else you were thinking of or what experience you have there already

8:01 AM

And I saw above that you also thought about workshops/education space, which is great!

8:01 AM

Sorry for the 100 messages, that's it for today

One thing I am curious about is to figure out how to recycle pla plastic. There are two constant sources of it from consumer 3d printers and airsoft BBs. Is there any places where I can drop that off

Bucky

One thing I am curious about is to figure out how to recycle pla plastic. There are two constant sources of it from consumer 3d printers and airsoft BBs. Is there any places where I can drop that off

It doesn’t seem so yet in Tokyo but that’s part of the plan

(edited)

4:35 AM

Also there is one in Kamakura! https://preciousplastickamakura.com/