I buried some wallpaper that will return to the earth.

2024.09.24
土に還る壁紙、埋めてみました。

Release date: 2021.12.09

In the first half of 2021 , Kabegamiya Honpo envisioned a future where carrot wallpaper would be made with potatoes , and now, less than six months later, this fall, they have released two 100% plant-based wallpapers, FLAX WALLPAPER and Food Paper .

What the two have in common is that they both return to the earth .

But when I hear "wallpaper that returns to the earth," it doesn't really mean much to me.
It has a meaningful ring to it, but why doesn't it resonate with me more strongly?

That's why I decided to dig a little deeper and think about the meaning of "returning to the soil" while returning "wallpaper that returns to the soil" to the soil.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologize in advance for not reporting the results for quite some time.

Vegetable wallpaper and flax wallpaper. And a fork, too.

What I Buried

I have a lot of things to say, but first we need to bury the wallpaper.

For this experiment, we buried the following three things.

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From the left, there are scraps of Food Paper (potato) , scraps of FLAX WALLPAPER (before printing), and a biodegradable plastic fork.

The raw materials for the vegetable wallpaper "Food Paper" are paper mulberry (used to make washi), hemp, and vegetables.
The raw materials for "FLAX WALLPAPER" are flax and viscose. Viscose is a material made by dissolving pulp and solidifying it into fibers.

All of these materials are 100% plant-based.

More details about each item can be found in the articles below.

Wallpaper made from vegetables | Food Paper

Make some earth-friendly choices for your walls | FLAX WALLPAPER

I also decided to bury some biodegradable plastic forks from among the event tableware samples that I had ordered but are unlikely to see the light of day for a while due to the coronavirus.

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Although it says "Compostable" on the back of the fork, it looks and feels like ordinary plastic. We all secretly wondered if something like this could really be returned to the earth.

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Biodegradable plastic is plastic that can be broken down and returned to nature.
Biomass plastic, a material that has become popular in recent years, is known as "plastic that uses biological resources as raw materials," but the actual definition is different.

The fork we will be burying this time is made from 100% plant-based materials, and is a plastic that decomposes and returns to nature.
In other words, it is a biodegradable, biomass plastic fork.
When properly decomposed in an environment with microorganisms, it seems that it will decompose into carbon dioxide and water.

Now, let's return it to nature.

 

Experimenting for the Earth

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When burying something, a sign is definitely necessary.
However, for someone who mostly works with computers, the mental hurdles of creating a signboard were quite high.

One day, the store manager, Hayashi, passed by.

Uematsu
I'm trying to make a sign.

Perhaps he could hear my desire for help in my voice.

He came back to my desk 5 minutes later.
After picking up pieces of wood from somewhere in the company,

Hayashi
I gave it a pointed end.

This is what was handed to me.

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The result was perfect for this mission; a sign that was nothing more and nothing less than acceptable.

Just in case, I thought of a word to prevent it from being dug up by mischievous children, and finally decided on `"Experimenting for the Earth" over the other option of "grave" (both of which I felt had equal moral strength).

Now I was ready to go.

 

Time to Dig

Kabegamiya Honpo is located in Taisho Ward, Osaka City, on the seafront.
The experiment was carried out in the garden of our sister store, WALPA OSAKA , commonly known as "WALPARK."

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I decided to carry out this mission at the edge of the embankment, a step back from the area where seasonal plants are in full bloom.

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A certain day in December 2021.
As the winter sea breeze blows into Walpark,

Digging the soil,

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We took turns digging,

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Bury the three items,

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We also put up signs,

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\Tah-dah/

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Mission accomplished.

I've never buried a time capsule, but I imagine it must feel like this.

 

While burying it, think about "returning to the earth."

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What did you think when you first heard about "recyclable wallpaper"?
What crossed my mind was that although I might put up this natural wallpaper and remove it, I would never bury it in the ground.

The soil I have at home comes from three planters that I currently have lying around on the balcony of my house.
I could have buried it there, but I have to plant basil and shiso again in the spring, so it would be a problem if it didn't decompose by then.
I have never buried something in the ground and had it decompose, but I was certain.
"It won't be possible by spring."


Even if there is wallpaper that can be returned to the soil, if it is not returned to the soil, it will end up being burned as trash, so maybe there is no point in doing so? That's what I thought.

Sometimes there are eco-materials that have no meaning unless a system is established to collect them.
Even if it is true that things return to the earth, I think that just using that as a catchphrase is just a formality.

But then, as I learned more, I understood.
That it's not meaningless even if it's not buried in the ground .

Now let me tell you that story.

 

Digging deeper into plant-based materials.

Why are plant-based materials so environmentally friendly?
That's because it "returns to the earth."
That's all it meant to me until now.

From here, we will move on to the question, ``Why is wallpaper that returns to the earth environmentally friendly even if it is not buried in the soil?''

It's made from plant-derived ingredients.
Its source is plants such as trees, hemp, vegetables, and fruits. It grows through photosynthesis using sunlight and carbon dioxide as nutrients until it becomes the raw material for other things.

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It will be harvested, processed, made into products, and eventually thrown away.
When discarded as garbage, most of it is incinerated. Of course, natural materials also release carbon dioxide when burned.
However, compared to chemical materials such as plastic, it generates less heat and does not emit harmful substances such as dioxins.

Plants also absorb carbon dioxide as they grow until they are processed into raw materials.
For example, the amount of CO2 absorbed by 70 cedar2 trees in one year is about 1 ton.2 This is estimated to be about half of the total CO2 emissions per square meter per year in Japan.

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In other words, the amount of carbon dioxide released during incineration is offset by the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the plants while they grow, resulting in a net zero, give or take.
Strictly speaking, it may be positive or negative, but carbon dioxide emissions seem to be calculated that way.

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Compared to natural materials, plastic is now almost considered the root of all evil.
Vinyl chloride, the material for vinyl wallpaper that is widely used in Japan, is also a type of plastic.

The issue is not just the amount of heat generated when incinerated or the harmful substances. Its excellent durability, which makes it a valuable product, turns into a problem as it becomes difficult to decompose once it becomes trash.

For example, while cardboard usually decomposes in about 1 to 3 years, it is thought that plastic bottles take about 450 years to decompose.

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The fact that it does not decompose easily means that it has a much greater impact on the ecosystem than natural materials when it is disposed of in landfills and flows into the natural world such as the ocean.

I buried a biodegradable biomass plastic fork along with the wallpaper. Although it depends on the environment such as product specifications, temperature, and the amount of microorganisms, if you bury it in the soil, it will mostly decompose in about 2 to 5 years. If you use compost (aged compost, temperature 75 degrees Celsius), bacteria and microorganisms will be more active, so if you use something the size of a kitchen draining net, it will almost completely disappear in a few days.
Excellent.

However, even biodegradable plastics seem to decompose at a much slower rate in ocean and river environments.
That means we haven't overcome all the challenges yet.

 

Maybe I'll dig it up every now and then.

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A future in which we continue to rely on the cheap and durable plastics that have supported our lives isunsustainable.
That's why people are exploring ways to use natural materials that put less strain on the earth.

But it is our responsibility. And precisely because it is our responsibility,
there's no reason it has to be boring.

Kabegamiya Honpo will continue to aim for interiors that are fun and exciting, and that are kind to the earth.

Now that we know why plant-based materials are kind to the earth, the only mission left now is to wait.
We need to see the flax wallpaper, vegetable wallpaper, and biodegradable biomass plastic forks decompose and return to nature.

I'm curious to see how much and what kind of changes it will bring.
So maybe I'll dig it up every now and then.


Let's wait patiently until the day it disassembles.
While drinking some delicious coffee.


The results of the digging are revealed!

Click here for an article summarizing the records of the excavation!

We dug up some wallpaper that will return to the earth.


Uematsu
profile
I finally tried boxed wine recently.
I was happy that the garbage from four glass bottles was reduced to just one paper carton and a plastic bag, but then I realized that I was drinking more (the pitfall of not being able to see how much I had drunk).
Glass is made from plant-based materials, but it takes about a million years to decompose.


Make some earth-friendly choices for your walls | FLAX WALLPAPER

Wallpaper made from vegetables | Food Paper