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Today’s topic is a flooring material which is made of wooden disposable chopsticks. This was started as a part of Nippon Kikan Project by Bunshodo to protect the Japanese environment.

Around 70% of the national territory in Japan is forest. Of those, 40% is artificial. The artificial plantation is desolated when neglected. Along with the growth of the trunk and the leaves, the sun light does not reach to the ground any longer and photonic synthesis gets interfered. However, most of the Japanese forests are abandoned for principally the economic reason and things are going from bad to worse at the moment.

It is now required to deliberately and widely utilize the wood materials by thinning or cleaning.

"Naoki.Tseng" some rights reserved. flickr

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Unfortunately, however, the prospect does not look bright. Therefore, the project was set up and makes an utmost use of national wood materials in the office environment while the housing demand remains stagnant.

When producing throwaway wood chopsticks some lumber remnant is always wasted. Parts with joints or coarse-grain are unsuited for chopsticks as they cannot split into half but are good enough for flooring material. They are even better as they can create unique aspect on the surface of the floor and the cost is reduced by half of other materials. It is now on sale for 7,980 yen/m². The wood scent from the material is also one of the biggest charming points.

The thickness of the chopsticks is the same so their application to floors is practical.

I hope this unique, economical and eco-friendly project would take a role for our sustainable society.

Sources: tv-tokyo, bunshodo

This is JAPAN Style!