There are a lot of really smart people in Japan, which ends up leading to some really wacky but interesting inventions.
They're always thinking of ways to make our lives easier, like with these handy dust slippers for cats...
...or this more practical baby dust bunny sweeper-upper outfit.
They've also thought of man-boobs...
and little shoe umbrellas...
but I think that they finally outdid themselves with Nakabayashi's waste office paper-to-toilet paper machine.
I'm not saying it's crazy. I actually think it's a great idea -- until we figure out a better bathroom solution, we're always gonna need tp, right? But I don't think the brilliant engineers who came up with this hunk of $95,000 hardware (yes, that's the retail price!) were thinking about the greener picture. Treehugger says:
"The toilet paper machine is able to produce two rolls per hour from around 1,800 sheets (or 7.2kg) of used A4-sized paper".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that seem like you have to feed an awful lot of office paper in to get two paltry rolls of toilet paper out? If you're gonna use that much paper in the first place, something's wrong. Why wouldn't you just use an e-filing solution instead and print documents only when absolutely necessary? Think about all the energy this machine gobbles up, too. I love cool new technologies and this one sounds great on the surface, but when you dig a little deeper, it doesn't seem very green at all.
jen w
said on June 03, 2009
Bob Kurz
said on June 04, 2009
Companies like Nakabayashi are thinking outside of the box for sure but they're missing the POINT -- habits have to be fundamentally reformed for us to make any headway in the new green economy. They're making the mistake of developing technology based on our outdated, wasteful patterns of behavior -- and we can't AFFORD to be in that place anymore.
Tracey Shrier
said on June 06, 2009
I just read the article on Treehugger and one lady made this comment about Japan:
"I've been living and working in Japan for 11 months. From what I've seen and experienced during this time, and much to my shock, it's not very green here at all. Recycling paper? No such thing, as far as I've seen. Where does office waste paper go? Burned at the end of the day...
The garbage system here still boggles my mind. There is a designated day of the week for plastics, burnable items, non-burnables, etc., respectively. There's no recycling involved. Burnables (including paper) are burned, and the rest is in many cases, thrown in a deep, deep hole in the ground. Sometimes the burnables go in this hole, too..."
Completely shocked me to read that statement since Japan keeps coming out with new technologies to help this planet like an electricity station on a sidewalk that can power the lights by people walking on it and such.