Used Diapers Turned into New Ones Thanks to Super-Recycling Japanese Towns and New Innovation

Japanese diaper brands on a shelf – credit 維基小霸王- CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the 1990s, a pair of Japanese municipalities estimated that the landfill they shared was going to be full by 2004.

Unless they did something to start reducing the size of their waste streams, the towns would have to sacrifice more precious land, or truck their waste much farther afield to another site.

Their response was to ramp up recycling of the clearest categories such as glass, paper, and metals, before moving on to more complicated streams, particularly a very stinky one: dirty diapers.

“Ultimately, our top priority is to reduce our trash and extend the life of the landfill,” Kenichi Matsunaga, an environment official for the city of Shibushi, told the Japan Times.

Billions of diapers—used by the very youngest and the oldest in society, are discarded every year in Japan. Made of layered, super-absorbing fibers and other materials, they aren’t readily recyclable.

Located in Kagoshima Prefecture, a new recycling initiative for diapers separates and shreds this core material in a way that prepares it for reuse while saving millions of tons of landfill-bound waste.

Shibushi, and the nearby town of Osaki, recycle 80% of household waste—some four-times the national avergae. Here, the company Unicharm aimed to pioneer its diaper recycling method where locals are already used to sorting their trash.

Residents’ diapers are collected, but only if their names are written on the bags to ensure accountability. Then, they’re washed and shredded until their component elements of plastic, pulp, and super-absorbent polymer (SAP) are separated.

Previously, GNN has reported that the company has used this material to make toilet paper, but now have advanced their method and machinery enough to reuse the pulp in diaper manufacturing.

The recycled diaper toilet paper – credit: Osaki Municipal Government’s SDGs Promotion Council

The process uses ozone, a sterilizing gas, to clean and deodorize the pulp to the point that it passes sanitary requirements. The company is currently working on ways to prepare the SAP for reuse, and expects progress by 2028.

The country is probably the only one in the world where more diapers are produced for incontinent elders than for babies. Larger and more robust, they take up more space in landfills.Japan wants to aim for 100 cities and towns to be recycling diapers by 2030, “or at least to start talking about it” reports Japan Times. Used Diapers Turned into New Ones Thanks to Super-Recycling Japanese Towns and New Innovation

Read More........→April 05, 2026

Western Tatami Mat Mania Keeping Alive Japan’s Traditional Woven Grass Flooring Industry

A modern tatami room – credit, Filiz Elaerts on Unsplash

Western admirers of Japanese aesthetic are keeping afloat tatami craftsmen in Japan, where modernity and maintenance requirements are driving down interest in this artisanal form of flooring.

From Europe to the US and even in the Middle East, eager importers of tatami mats now account for a sizable amount of orders from workshops like that run by Mr. Fumio Kuboki.

Kuboki is just the latest of his kin to run the family business which has been making tatami mats for 280 years. He still sells mostly to the Japanese market, but substantial help is coming from across the Pacific.

Half of the company’s international orders come from the US, Kuboki told the Japan Times.

For hundreds of years, a Japanese house wouldn’t be complete without wall-to-wall mats made of woven grass, called tatami. Made of tightly woven igusa grass, they were the standard feature in all dry rooms.

But one of Japan’s great marvels is that, even with as characteristic and attractive a traditional culture as it cultivated over the centuries, its modern aesthetic and lifestyle is almost just as iconic. As a result, the tatami mat has become somewhat neglected among Japanese crafts: reminiscent of your grandparents house and rural living.

Western-style flooring began to be the norm starting in the 1970s, and China began mass producing synthetic tatami that was easier to clean, longer-lasting, and cheaper to replace. As a result, it’s estimated that every year, 40 traditional tatami makers close up shop for good.

Yet for the increasing number of foreign residents, tatami represents the attractiveness of the Japanese aesthetic, and as well as installing it in their residences in the country, many of them bring it back to Europe or the US.

Arno Suzuki, a professor of architectural design at Kyoto Tachibana University who has studied the use of tatami in Spain, Italy and France, told the Times that seeing the appreciation for tatami among the rest of the world has somewhat reminded the younger generations of Japan of its value

Having a tatami “space” in an apartment or house is suddenly not as uncool as it once was.

“Nowadays they have a tatami space—not a tatami room, but at the corner of their living room they have three or four tatami mats, and they enjoy it. And also, many people realize that it’s better for when—especially when they have small kids, like toddlers and babies, it’s safer for them to crawl,” Suzuki told the Times.

In the city of Kobe, Taro Mano is the 4th in his family to take over the 70-year-old tatami business. He too has seen a rise from foreign buyers in countries like those Suzuki studied in.

“Tatami is a kind of symbol of Japan. It’s an easy way to express a Japanese atmosphere, even in other countries,” Mr. Mano said, adding that he first thought the interest would come from the United States, but it came to be far more diverse than that.

Mr. Kuboki makes some 10% of his revenues from overseas sales, with many of his products being stocked year-round at Japan House in Los Angeles. 100 years ago, no one ever wondered what else could be made of tatami, but now, whether it’s a coaster or a book cover, the artform is being reimagined.“Every day I talk with visitors and listen to what kind of tatami they want,” Mr. Kuboki said. “The products that are selected and loved by people are the ones that will naturally become the future of tatami. The future of tatami will be decided by customers.” Western Tatami Mat Mania Keeping Alive Japan’s Traditional Woven Grass Flooring Industry

Read More........→January 02, 2026