Japanese plastic dirt is half as dense as real dirt, over 100 times more plastic

We've seen quite a few efforts to use gardens and terrariums in cities to order to bring down overall CO2 emissions and reduce temperatures, but Tokyo's earthquake-prone location means that structures there have to meet strict load requirements -- so a company called Suntory Ltd., has developed a synthetic dirt substitute called Pafcal it says weighs less than half as much as real soil. The fake dirt, which is made of urethane, can reduce the internal temperature of a building with a roof garden up to 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit). Of course, there's considerable irony in trying to save the planet by covering concrete buildings in fake plastic dirt, but then again, such a solution is about as Japanese as it gets, no?

[Jeff @ Feb 26th 2008 2:33AM]

Suntory ... the beer company? lol

[David @ Feb 26th 2008 2:51AM]

..yeah....Suntory... the Beer Company

But most Japanese companies are conglomerates. I mean, I have a (REAL!!) Mitsubishi toothbrush, considering that they also make planes and tractors

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 2:33AM]

"about as Japanese as it gets"

Anyone want to defend this comment? I say it's ignorant and racist. Go ahead and deride Japanese technological advances, then try getting through a day without it ( or maybe writing a blog without it ).

I guess being "as Japanese" an idea it's instantly better then if it were "as American as it gets".

Exactly what does that mean to you?

if "as Japanese as it gets" = Toyota Prius, then "as American as it gets" = Hybrid SUV.

[Superprime @ Feb 26th 2008 2:35AM]

That's exactly what they mean. You nailed it

[Les @ Feb 26th 2008 2:55AM]

take the stick out of your ass. It was a harmless joke.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 2:44AM]

But I mean, if trying to save the world is "as Japanese as it gets", then SURE, let's mock the silly bastards, I mean, they do talk funny!

Soil-covered houses date back thousands of years ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_sheltering ), those silly Japanese, always thinking of crazy things! The EPA of America must be nuts too! Look! ( http://www.epa.gov/hiri/strategies/greenroofs.html ) And those twits over at Berkley must be whacko ( http://bie.berkeley.edu/node/1350 ), pointing out that this technology "can reduce energy use for cooling compressors by 16%". Let's mock all these people, cmon everyone with me now!

Get Real. We should be lauding anyone who is positively addressing the issues of sustainable modernization and urbanization.

[Joey Geraci @ Feb 26th 2008 2:46AM]

Oh, give me a break. Are you new? We are geeks, and we couldn't possibly revere more almost all things Japanese (PS3 possibly excepted).

[Jordan @ Feb 26th 2008 2:47AM]

I think you should get your rectum probed, Will, you might have something up it.

[guerilla779 @ Feb 27th 2008 1:34PM]

u guys are wrong !

APPLE is "as american as it gets" and only they can solve the worlds problems :)

[Reader @ Feb 26th 2008 2:51AM]

Teh political correctness strikez again!

[John @ Feb 26th 2008 2:52AM]

Will calm down, what they are having a go at is more the fact of what energy is going to get used making the fake dirt (out of plastic, which is generally made out of petroleums). The irony is they will probably use more energy making the stuff and do more halm than good.

I say just a thin layer or dirt say (1 foot) couple of branch root style plants that spread they're roots across rather than down and you be right...

(I may be simplifying this abit to much?)

I think the theory behind it is good just fails practically.

[happy_penguin @ Feb 26th 2008 2:55AM]

It isn't racist because Japanese isn't a race. It's the same as if you say "as American as it gets."

[Doug @ Feb 26th 2008 2:57AM]

Spare us the knee-jerk holier-than-thou racism drivel. Good call, Joey and Jordan.

[Nick @ Feb 26th 2008 3:00AM]

Not bad at all... Just, you know... Plastic.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 2:59AM]

I'm simply saying that I have a problem with the statement:

"Of course, there's considerable irony in trying to save the planet by covering concrete buildings in fake plastic dirt, but then again, such a solution is about as Japanese as it gets, no?"

I feel as thought this statement undervalues the importance of the concept by trading actual content and insight for glib generalization. I usually enjoy engadget as a universal forum for relevant, concise insight and commentary on technology, and I don't expect or enjoy this type of commentary. If I did I'd read the Onion (or whatever).

[happy_penguin @ Feb 26th 2008 3:00AM]

"if "as Japanese as it gets" = Toyota Prius, then "as American as it gets" = Hybrid SUV."

This comment, on the other hand, is just ignorant.

[roflercopterer @ Feb 26th 2008 3:04AM]

weeaboo!

[Soulis @ Feb 26th 2008 3:14AM]

Honestly. Joke. A simple racial pun meant to be light and humorous. I would understand the outburst if this was blatantly offensive and disregarding of their status as human beings, but it doesn't. In fact, it made my Japanese friends chuckle a bit. There are lines in racial humor; this didn't cross it.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:16AM]

I'm surprised that so many people are denouncing my 'racism drivel'.

When you talk, I just can't help but picture a fat American in Japan going up a stoic Japanese businessman and saying something like " SO lemme get this straight, you're putting PLASTIC in DIRT and then puttin' it on yer' roof!! HA!! What'll you crazy Japanese think of next!!! "

I imagine the look on his face would be similar to the one on mine.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:29AM]

@Soulis

You're right, there are "lines" in racial humor, and there is also "time" and "place". You're right it's not glaring or disgusting, but I simply feel as though it doesn't belong on a professional media outlet such as engadget.

And don't get me wrong, I love whattheasian.com ( http://www.whattheasian.com/ )

[happy_penguin @ Feb 26th 2008 3:29AM]

Yes. It could be an ignorant statement, or not. But it is not racist. Let's not be so quick to play the R card.

[haracas @ Feb 26th 2008 3:49AM]

On a side note, you really do need to go find a new source of gadget info then, and it definately won't be from Gizmodo either. You have that these are BLOGS. Amazing steps of web technology combined with word logging! Unlike "professional media" which are boring, blogs have humour and personality to them and they DO also publish rumors. I would suggest you go back to the dark ages of TV and magazines if you really do want a "universal forum on blah blah blah"　or something blander.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:52AM]

@haracas

I'm not sure why gadget news and professionalism have to be mutually exclusive.

[Elliot @ Feb 26th 2008 6:53AM]

i'm with Will on this one

Japanese have been and currently still are at the forefront of environmental technologies.

Considering the purpose of this product i'd be incredibly surprised if the plastics that they use weren't recycled. If you've ever looked into what recycled plastics were used for then you'd realise that they're rarely fully reprocessed and are instead used for specific applications like this where shredded plastics do the job perfectly.

Insinuating that this product actually has a negative effect on the environment and then saying that "is about as Japanese as it gets". Ya know? How else are we supposed to interpret that one engadget?

[Zorque @ Feb 26th 2008 7:46AM]

"When you talk..."

When you talk, I just can't help but picture a fat white guy touching himself to anime.

[GeneMack @ Feb 26th 2008 10:08AM]

Will:

First, I took that comment to mean it is typical of Japanese to take a purely technological angle at solving a purely natural problem - we want to save the Earth (Earth=Dirt), so we make fake earth (earth=dirt). Looking at it that way, it IS sort of surreal.

Second, you seem to have an unrealistic view of the Japanese, wrapped up in all this honor, stoicism and seriousness. I used to be that way too.

Then I went to work for a Japanese company and visited Japan many times. While I still like and admire many of their traits, I also found out their honor is only among other Japanese and a majority are the most racist individuals you would meet. And yes, you can call it racism, since they DO believe they are their own race and HATE the Chinese, Koreans and most other Asians. Basically, they are no more different as a culture than Americans, or the rest of the world for that matter.

[ben @ Feb 26th 2008 10:10AM]

A green plastic watering can
For a fake chinese rubber plant
In the fake plastic earth

That she bought from a rubber man
In a town full of rubber plans
To get rid of itself

It wears her out, it wears her out
It wears her out, it wears her out

She lives with a broken man
A cracked polystyrene man
Who just crumbles and burns

He used to do surgery
On girls in the eighties
But gravity always wins

And it wears him out, it wears him out
It wears him out, it wears him out

She looks like the real thing
She tastes like the real thing
My fake plastic love

But I can't help the feeling
I could blow through the ceiling
If I just turn and run

And it wears me out, it wears me out
It wears me out, it wears me out

And if I could be who you wanted
If I could be who you wanted
All the time, all the time

[T-Bone @ Feb 26th 2008 11:58AM]

You don't know anything about the Japanese, do you? You haven't seen the crazy things they do, have you? The wackiest and funniest stuff comes out of Japan. Have you heard of Binocular Soccer? That's why using synthetic, oil-based dirt to save the planet is as Japanese as it gets.

[boydston @ Feb 26th 2008 7:01PM]

When I read, "as Japanese as it gets..." I thought of it has a complement. As in Japanese technology and inovation is really cool and can be quite amazing. They can be daring, in a good way.

Especially in the context of a quite positive article about a new technology that can have endless ramifications. Such as getting plants into space and the moon, to name one. Anyway, that is how I read it. Interesting how we can see things in complete opposite ways.

[Mr_boogie @ Feb 26th 2008 2:46AM]

This is not about the use of plastic, but about the use of plastic materials as container for gardens. Remember that one of the reasons most roof-tops don't get gardens is because of the load on the roof by the earth needed to cover it. If this plastic allows to have gardens in places that couldn't have them previously, then it is a bloody good solution.

As far as I know, earth is not the responsible for cleaning CO2, but the plants. So if this material can be use as a container for plants, more roof-top gardens will show up, not only increasing the CO2 consumption, but also decreasing electricity bills (as in you use less cooling in summer) and also as reducing the amount of rain water that goes into the draining system in a particular moment. This is specially important in a country that has typhoon season.

[happy_penguin @ Feb 26th 2008 3:26AM]

Good observation. You get a high rank vote.

[athousandleaves @ Feb 26th 2008 2:46AM]

POCKET POOF anyone?

[Ekental @ Feb 26th 2008 2:51AM]

You could interpret "as japanese as it gets" a lot of ways. Perhaps he meant exactly what you said. Perhaps he was talking about the irony of covering a structure in synthetic dirt. Perhaps its a vague concept, undefined, but intended to illustrate a foreign idea. Perhaps it was a remark intended to sow confusion, dissent, and racism.

Racism and stereotyping is politically wrong, but phrases and words are almost always situationally offensive. There's a difference between being racist and using it as a literary device. I'm sure the truly offended Japanese here can defend themselves.

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:19AM]

You're about right. I don't really come to engadget for "vague" racist concepts.

And yes, I'm sure the truly offended Japanese can defend themselves, but there prolly aren't enough offended enough to be bothered.

[Rocketboy @ Feb 26th 2008 11:04AM]

I know, it's terrible to imply that it's a crazy good way of solving two things at once. We all just shamed our family.

[Kizorblade @ Feb 26th 2008 3:29AM]

Is it me or is that woman's neck REALLY thin compared to her body?

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:47AM]

That's the smartest thing anyone's said so far (including me).

[barrywoods @ Feb 26th 2008 9:47AM]

I think it's just a trick of the picture. That poofy thing on her shirt is covering part of her neck. I don't see anything wrong with "As Japanese as it gets". Though I don't go around looking for racisms, and politically incorrect things. I read it as their (Japanese tech folks in general) ability to improve on existing tech, in this case dirt.

[Russell @ Feb 26th 2008 3:45AM]

and I don't come to engadget to read comments cluttered up by some douchebag nitpick

[Will H. @ Feb 26th 2008 3:50AM]

lol, obviously not, you come to engadget to comment on comments by a douchey nitpick, which is of course much more fulfilling intellectually. Perhaps if you could muster up a thought you'd come to the same consensus that I did... that engadget isn't the place for questionably PC statements - which may lead to douchey nit-pickery.

[Zorque @ Feb 26th 2008 6:49AM]

The expression on that lady's face makes me wonder if SHE's plastic.

[nikos @ Feb 26th 2008 7:49AM]

Will ... take a fake mud bath.... and relax :)

[eescs @ Feb 26th 2008 10:29AM]

Perlite? Vermiculite?

Soil-less growing mixes are not new, they're common in most indoor gardening set-ups and commercial agriculture in the US and everywhere else.

Acting like its some crazy invention that's 'about as Japanese as it gets' is ignorant on multiple levels and yeah, racist.

I mean really, don't you engadget folks ever grow anything?

[Rocketboy @ Feb 26th 2008 11:06AM]

Wow, that was so not where I clicked. I even clicked the date stamp.

[Rocketboy @ Feb 26th 2008 11:07AM]

Hoo-boy, it did it again...

[Rocketboy @ Feb 26th 2008 11:09AM]

Why do I even bother...

[unjust @ Feb 26th 2008 1:33PM]

so is the energy savings more than over conventional dirt roofs? or over conventional roofs?

what happens when the plants grow and shed leaves? is the added mass and change in "dirt" composition towards compost a concern?

[Denver_80203 @ Feb 26th 2008 1:56PM]

Totally unrelated but,
Isn't that the logo from the pesticide company in the Michael Clayton movie?

[Mikey @ Feb 29th 2008 1:47AM]

Is it just me, or is the lady just.... Y'know, a little creepy looking?
I feel as though she wants to kill someone with that potted plant.

[niels Kramer @ Mar 2nd 2008 7:46AM]

This is what wikipedia has to say about urethane

In the past urethane has been produced commercially in the United States for well over 30 years. It has been used as an antineoplastic agent and for other medicinal purposes. It saw relatively heavy use in the treatment of multiple myeloma before it was found to be toxic and largely ineffective.[1] By US FDA regulations urethane has been withdrawn from pharmaceutical use. Urethane is not acutely toxic to humans, as shown by its use as a medicine. Acute toxicity studies show that the lowest fatal dose in rats, mice, and rabbits equals 1.2 grams/kg. or more. When urethane was used medicinally, about 50 percent of the patients exhibited nausea and vomiting, and long time use led to gastroenteric hemorrhages (USEPA 1979). The compound has almost no odor and a cooling, saline, bitter taste (HSDB 2006a).

Urethane is not acutely toxic to humans, as shown by its use as a medicine. Acute toxicity studies show that the lowest fatal dose in rats, mice, and rabbits equals 1.2 grams/kg. or more. When urethane was used medicinally, about 50 percent of the patients exhibited nausea and vomiting, and long time use led to gastroenteric hemorrhages (USEPA 1979). The compound has almost no odor and a cooling, saline, bitter taste (HSDB 2006a).

Studies with rats, mice, and hamsters has shown that urethane will cause cancer when it is administered orally, injected, or applied to the skin, but no adequate studies of urethane-caused cancer in humans has been reported (IARC,1974). The International Agency for Research on Cancer has stated that urethane can be “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals.” (NTP 2005). This evaluation has led to the following US regulatory actions:

NESHAP: Listed as a Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP)
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act: Reportable Quantity (RQ) = 100 lb
Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory: A listed substance subject to RCRA reporting requirements
RCRA Listed Hazardous Waste: substance - U238

I'm not sure we want that on our roofs, now do we?