Now, the challenge for the food and beverage industry as a whole is how to reduce garbage in plastics and other packaging materials and containers related to products. Although it is inevitable that garbage will come out, there is something that can be done to the future earth with a little idea of materials, shapes, how to select them, and a little idea. The takeout cups and cutlery used at MARKET on the first floor of GOOD NATURE STATION are packed with a lot of things to tell when thinking about the earth and the environment.

Doubt the industry

What kind of packaging materials and containers will be used to provide food and drinks at GOOD NATURE MARKET? It was one of the big challenges for us. Transparency that allows you to see the content of the dish, fitting of the body and the lid that does not leak, and reasonable at all. With that in mind, it is common sense in the food and beverage industry to use plastic items, whether packaging or containers. However, if plastics are adopted according to the common sense, it would be contrary to our proposal of "comfortable for the earth, society, and the environment." This time, Daisuke Ito, who was in charge of selecting packaging materials and containers, says, "I had many issues up to the final decision."

Ito: "Because I've been working in the food and beverage industry, it was natural that the packaging material was made of plastic. However, it is a prerequisite for this GOOD NATURE STATION to start from the point where such doubts are made. Anyway, I decided on a big theme to find a fashionable and earth-friendly packaging material that I had never seen before, and from there, word of mouth and walking around using my feet to find the ideal one The days of searching continued. "

When I searched for packaging materials, I realized two things: it was difficult to use no plastic at all, and the demand for eco-friendly packaging materials was gradually increasing, but the prices were still high. The more attractive as an eco-packaging material, the higher the price. The more attractive the price, the less durable or inconvenient somewhere ...

Ito: "Eco-packaging materials are just getting a lot of attention. There are not so many things that can be said to be 100% eco-friendly, and individuals have different ways of thinking about eco-friendly products. "I wonder if we should have a firm attitude and have our own standards for that attitude."

Fateful encounter with the butterfly cup

Therefore, we have established a policy to reduce the amount of plastic garbage by minimizing the amount of plastic garbage and to reduce CO2 emissions when incinerated. One of the most fateful encounters was the butterfly cup for drink takeout.

Ito: "At the time, it was a cup that was just developed in Ireland, which was a shock. It can handle both hot drinks and iced drinks, and even soups, but it has a special design By closing the top of the cup with a patter, you can prevent liquid leakage, and you can also drink directly from the gap between both ends of the cup with the top folded.Plastic lid which was necessary for ordinary takeout cups No cups or straws are needed, the sides of the cups are double-layered, and they also function as a sleeve. 100% paper, so it's okay to throw them away.

The encounter with the Butterfly Cup has led to a change in the way drinks are served and the operations at GOOD NATURE MAEKET.

Ito: "I'm using a new-style, seemingly inconvenient butterfly cup, and customers ask me" unusual cups "and" how do you drink? " I'm glad I'm glad if it could trigger a customer's awareness. ''

Ito also says, “I've never seen it!”, “It was hard to drink”, and I heard various opinions at the store.

Ito: "I think it's important now for this cup to be spread through social media and word of mouth, including both positive and negative opinions. It's the GOOD NATURE STATION 's proposition to keep telling us why we did it, and what we can do is to believe that it will lead to the future of the earth. ''

Butterfly cups are used not only for drinks but also for selling organic nuts. As it is water resistant, it can be washed and reused in your home or office.

In addition, cutlery and chopsticks, for which no plastic is difficult due to durability and water resistance issues, use bioplastics, which are plant-derived plastics, as much as possible, so that they can be washed and used many times. Is also a feature. Mudler is a tree branch. The branches of the blueberry field in Miyazaki Prefecture are collected, processed and thoroughly sterilized to prevent injury. The wrapping paper with the round design is a gift bag. This time, shopping bags and large gift wraps are charged for the purpose of reducing garbage, but we prepared them for small gift wraps. Actually, this is also handmade by the staff one by one from the extra paper that comes out when wrapping a large gift. We will wrap it up for free if you request.

Our goal is to make these packaging materials "not unusual." Continue to use it tenaciously until eco-friendly packaging materials become commonplace. I want to cherish the continued action of this small action for the earth. We will continue to search for new packaging materials and continue to propose eco-friendly services such as the use of reuse cups while examining them.