Thursday, 4 August 2011

koshi kawachi




“manga farming” is the brainchild of koshi kawachi, a tokyo-based artist. the concept is simple: take an old manga comic book and place it upright in a dish; sprinkle some plant seeds of your choice on top (radish seems to work well, but buckwheat, broccoli, rocket and basil would surely do); and water them.

the idea opens up a whole new range of possibilities for book recycling and indoor farming. paper is potentially a wonderful fertilizer and planting ground, and according to an usda study, pulp and paper waste recycling to produce fertilizer is very much the need of the hour: “the u.s. pulp and paper industry produces 5 million mg of solid waste each year in the form of sludge. currently, most of this waste is landfilled.”

a common problem is that the nitrogen content of pulp and paper sludge is quite low and its use as a fertilizer is thus hampered. that said, processes that can enrich such sludgy waste using bacteria and wood decay fungi are being developed. and the ink? we’re sure environmentally friendly options like soy ink could be used more and further the cause of recycling paper for use as a fertilizer.

http://www.koshikawachi.com/gallery/01mn

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