The Plant-able Papers Of Japan
Written by Aniketh Kumar on July 1, 2023
Originally published for ‘Greenery Day’ on May 4th 2016, the special edition solely dedicated its pages to environmental news and was printed on 100% biodegradable paper with plant-based inks. Seeds were embedded within each of its pages that, once planted, would grow into flowers to attract butterflies and other pollinators. Some copies could even grow herbs to eat! The newspapers contained instructions to whoever picked up the papers; to tear the used and discarded newspapers into smaller pieces and plant them in soil. Seeing as branding is 185% stronger in print advertising than digital [Newswoks, Print vs Digital Advertising, 2020], adding plantable pages to the mix makes the printed word even more appealing.
Who Invented It?
The concept was originally invented by Dentsu Inc, one of Japan’s largest advertising agencies, which works with The Mainichi, publisher of The Japanese Daily. Environmental sustainability is the core value and main topic of the publisher. In fact, their mission states that “The Mainichi doesn’t take action only through information, but also by solving global issues.”
The Plantable Trend
It’s not just The Japanese Daily that are hopping on the bandwagon when it comes to sustainable planting initiatives. With a recycling rate of 74% in Europe, new and innovative ways of recycling have been becoming increasingly more popular. [CEPI, 2020]
Plantable greetings cards are becoming progressively more common in most stationary shops and supermarkets. Businesses are even starting to create promotional materials such as seed sticks and plantable papers for business cards, and flyers.
[Source: https://lovepaper.org/plantable-papers-of-japan/]
