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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-28/sustainable-alternative-shoyu-tai-sushi-plastic-soy-sauce-fish/106596352>
“Designer Angus Ware was working in Sydney when he came across a problem.
Like millions of city workers around the world, he would grab takeaway sushi "a
couple of times a week" for a quick and easy lunch.
But for all its convenience, it was a meal that came swathed in plastic.
Not only was the sushi often served in a plastic container, but the extras also
came delivered in plastic.
"They'd have a little bit of plastic grass. They'd have chopsticks, often in a
plastic sachet. They'd have ginger in a sachet, wasabi in a sachet," he tells
Anthony Burke on
ABC Radio National's
By Design.
"And then of course, the little fish, which is a bottle and a cap that then
separate."
Those distinctive little fish — known as shoyu-tai, which translates as "soy
sauce snapper" — were developed by Japanese designer Teruo Watanabe in the 50s,
part of the post-World War II plastics boom.
Ware soon began noticing sushi packaging, including the little fish and their
distinctive red lids, littering the environment around him.
"[They're] really easy to drop and … you would see them everywhere," he says.
"In inner Sydney … there's a layer of single-use plastic that lines all of our
streets and waterways and beaches."
The irony of fish-shaped litter despoiling the city's waterways was not lost on
Ware.
"It's this natural thing that we're then chucking aside after a few seconds,"
he says.
Much of this plastic ends up in the ocean, where it is consumed by marine life.
"We're introducing those plastics back into our food, back into the sushi that
we're eating," Ware says.
As bans on single-use plastics roll out around the country, the pressure is on
to find a functional alternative.
Fortunately, Ware has a solution: Holy Carp! It's a reusable and compostable
soy sauce container he and Jeffrey Simpson — his partner in business and the
Heliograf design studio — developed with the help of fellow designers Vert
Design.”
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
