Environmental Measures] Initiatives to Reduce Plastic

Eight million tons of plastic waste is discharged into the ocean every year, and the problem of plastic waste is becoming more and more serious around the world.
Do you know where litter goes?
In fact, most of the litter that is thrown away on the streets is washed away with the rain and goes into the sewage system.
There are two main types of sewage pipes: a combined sewer system that collects sewage and rainwater in one pipe, and a separate sewer system that collects sewage and rainwater in separate pipes.
In the case of the combined sewer system, rainwater is discharged directly into the river along with garbage.
In the case of the combined sewer system, when heavy rainfall occurs, rainwater mixed with sewage is discharged directly into rivers because the sewage cannot be fully treated.
In the case of Tokyo, about 80% of the water is combined sewer systems. The reason why the sea is dirty and smelly after heavy rain is because sewage is discharged directly into rivers.
Plastic waste such as packaging and masks discarded on the roads along with heavy rainfall is also broken down into smaller pieces by weathering and eventually flows out to the ocean along with the heavy rainfall.
Most of the marine debris is not discarded in the ocean, but on land.
We wanted to make people aware of this before SYRINX's efforts, and first of all, we wanted to convey the importance of disposing of garbage properly.

Now, I would like to tell you about the plastic reduction we are working on at SYRINX.

Elimination of exterior OPP (clear plastic) bags
We have substituted paper sleeves and stopped using OPP bags. (However, it will take a while until we switch over all equipment and inventory.)

Reduction in the use of non-woven fabrics
We have stopped using non-woven fabrics for our main products such as wallets. We still use some products such as document cases, but we are looking for alternatives.

Devices that are not disposed of
Dummy cards attached to wallets used to be used as emergency contact cards so that they would not be thrown away. However, since they were not actually used, we redesigned them as Multi Ruler Card, a more practical and multifunctional ruler.
This " Multi Ruler Card "
was well received and in response to requests from customers to sell it as a stand-alone product, we have started selling it to the general public.

The anti-skimming card that came with the wallet was sold separately to reduce the number of discarded cards, as not everyone necessarily needs one.

In the future, we intend to further promote de-plasticization by replacing the internal cushioning material with organic materials.