With the reduction of plastic waste becoming a global issue, there is a growing movement among electrical equipment manufacturers to review the materials used for product packaging.
The Sony Group has adopted a plastic-free material for the earphone case released last month.
Bamboo, sugar cane, and recycled paper are used for this material developed in-house, and it can be recycled as used paper, so the company is considering whether this material can be used for packaging of other products.
Kenichi Hirose, a designer of the Sony Group, said, "Overseas, awareness of the environment is extremely high. I want to raise awareness of the environment through packaging."
In addition, Casio Computer has changed to a package that uses a lot of recycled paper to reduce the amount of plastic in more than 120 types of watches, and Ricoh, a major precision equipment company, used sugar cane as a cushioning material to protect the glass surface of copiers. Incorporated the resulting plant-derived plastic material.
With regard to the reduction of plastic waste, more and more consumers are using the use of environmentally friendly materials as a standard when purchasing, and this movement is likely to spread further among electrical equipment manufacturers in the future.