Okay, we have good news for wine lovers who feel guilty about creating lots of trash by opening all of those wine bottles. See the picture above? Yes, you guessed it – used wine bottles are now being made into beautiful glassware! Isn’t this a great, eco-friendly way to recycle wine bottles? I, for one, definitely wouldn’t mind having such nice looking plates at home.

This line of unique recycled glassware was developed by Tokyo-based company Kimoto Glassware Co. Ltd and they are calling it “funew” glassware. (The name funew probably comes from an onomatopoeic expression in Japanese that describes something melting or becoming soft and malleable.) They achieve the interesting shape by melting the wine bottle in an electric furnace at a temperature of 500 degrees C (932 degrees F). Usually, a temperature of 1500 degrees C (2732 degrees F) is required to completely melt glass, but since funwew can be made at one-third of that temperature, it is also environment-friendly in terms of energy use.

And they’ve created more than just glass plates – they even have glass cups as well, also made from used wine bottles. Well, we think such creative and functional products are just great! Our hats are off to the folks at Kimoto Glassware who have turned the simple idea of recycling wine bottles into glass products unlike any we’ve seen before.

Unfortunately, they don’t let you  bring in your own used wine bottle to have it made into a plate or cup, but if you’re in the Tokyo area, funew glassware is now available at the Shinjuku Isetan Department Store, as well as the Nihonbashi and Ginza Mitsukoshi Department Stores. They may be just what you’re looking for if you want one-of-a kind plates and cups!

Source:
参照：kimotogw.co.jp (Japanese) via tv-tokyo.co.jp (Japanese)

Original Article by Yoshio


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