A number of big underwear retail sellers are collecting used bras and recycle them into a solid fuel for industrial use.
Triumph International provided its customers with plastic bags at some of its stores this spring, encouraging them to bring old bras, including other brands.
Wacoal introduced a recycling program in 2008. It removes metal parts from the used bras before putting the rest into special recycling facilities.
Both companies are thus helping producing a type of industrial fuel called refuse paper and plastic fuel (RPF), made of waste paper and plastic, including fibers.
Japanese women generally find it quite embarrassing to dispose of their used bras along with regular garbage, as many municipalities require that waste is placed in transparent plastic bags. According to a survey by Wacoal in 2004, about 61 percent of the respondents were hesitating to throw out bras along with regular garbage.
Triumph has helped producing about 14 tons of RPF fuel since it started its recycling activities, in 2009. It collected more than 200,000 bras since then. Wacoal said it has collected more than 179,200 bras and produced 17.9 tons of the fuel. The company expanded its recycling campaign this year and included some of its stores in Taiwan.
Specialists say that producing RPF fuel is the only way of recycling bras discovered so far.
Source: The Tokyo Times