Japanese man invents ‘edible’ plastic bag alternative to save Nara’s sacred deer

“I wished to do one thing to guard the deer, which is the image of Nara,” he stated.

The luggage are made out of rice bran and milk cartons.

Courtesy Bunyodo

In July 2019, nonetheless, an area welfare group stated 9 deer had been discovered lifeless, with plastic baggage of their stomachs, and referred to as on guests to not throw away plastic baggage within the park.

Matsukawa wished to give you a distinct resolution to the issue, and teamed up with an area paper producer and a design agency to work on the mission.

These plastic baggage had been pulled from the abdomen of a lifeless deer.

Courtesy Bunyodo

Between them they developed “Shikagami,” or deer paper, which is made out of rice bran and milk cartons.

“We discovered rice bran are largely wasted within the means of rice sprucing,” stated Matsukawa. “So this paper helps to cut back that waste as effectively.”

Matsukawa has had the baggage examined and says they’re secure for human consumption.

“We do not need the information to again up that this paper isn’t dangerous to deers, however I consider that is secure for them in addition to for human beings,” he stated, laughing.

The luggage have since been examined at native banks and the Todaiji temple, Nara’s predominant vacationer attraction. The temple and banks purchased 4,000-5,000 of the baggage for 100 yen (round 95 cents) every as a part of the pilot mission.

The worth will fall if extra companies enroll to make use of the baggage, stated Matsukawa, who goals of changing plastic baggage throughout town to stop extra deer from dying after consuming them.

“The information concerning the dying of deer by plastic baggage creates a unfavorable picture, as if the park is a cemetery for deer,” he stated. “The paper baggage can defend deer, in addition to the model picture of Nara with deer.”

Simply 45 minutes from Kyoto by practice, Nara is a well-liked vacation spot for guests to Japan.