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The robots are standard pick and place robots using suction to pick packaged t-shirts and put them in a box. If you were expecting to see a robot picking up a t
by AareyBaba 7y ago
The robots are standard pick and place robots using suction to pick packaged t-shirts and put them in a box. If you were expecting to see a robot picking up a t-shirt, folding it and putting it in a package you will be disappointed.
- Reason077 7y agoI like Uniqlo, but one thing that has annoyed me about them is the environmentally unsound practice of packaging each individual item (T-Shirts, etc) in a thick plastic wrapper. They don’t do this for all their lines, but it would be good if they could abandon such superfluous packaging altogether or at least switch to using sustainable, biodegradable materials.
- ivanhoe 7y agoFood and especially snacks packaging is more of a problem, t-shirt plastic wrap is in most countries very likely to end-up properly recycled.
- reaperducer 7y agoIt's very Japanese. You wouldn't believe the amount of plastic packaging even simple things are treated to in Japan. Box of 24 widgets? Expect each to be individually wrapped, the box to be wrapped, and then a plastic bag.
- skyyler 7y agoNot to mention all of the papers and cards and posters that come with the widgets. I got a recipe book with a Japanese toaster, in addition to like 9 other pieces of paper or cardstock, in addition to the regulatory pamphlet. I think most places in Japan have pretty extreme recycling policies. I wonder what came first, the excess of trash or the ability to deal with it?
- fiblye 7y agoOh, make no mistake, Japan’s plastic recycling is just like the rest of the world: it was dumped in poorer Asian countries. Most cities burn it now. PET plastic is allegedly recycled, but that’s just a small portion of all plastic.
- blackoil 7y agoIf my understanding is correct, Japanese put lot of emphasis on segregating garbage. So if most plastic is separately collected, who is buying it and for what? Why not simply burn it?
- schuke 7y agoInteresting. So is Japan even more wasteful when their whole society uses so much human and material resources classifying their rubbish?
- lmiller1990 7y agoCan confirm... bananas in the convenience store are individually wrapped in plastic. wtf?
- scriby 7y agoNot sure about bananas, but in general products are individually wrapped due to the high humidity in Japan.
- Reason077 7y agoMany parts of the world get humid, yet don’t need to obsessively wrap everything in plastic. Especially when you have modern infrastructure like refrigerated shipping, air conditioning, etc. It’s not as bad as Japan, but when it comes to produce in supermarkets, the UK shares this “wrap everything in plastic” mentality.
- erichocean 7y ago> due to the high humidity in Japan I had no idea Japan had high humidity until today. Thanks!
- tdiggity 7y agoAvoid going to japan from June-September!
- floatingatoll 7y agoUnless you enjoy high humidity!
- faitswulff 7y agoI was reminded of this on a recent trip to a Japanese bakery in our area where they individually wrapped each of our pastry selections.
- cafxx 7y agoFunnily enough, Uniqlo does not package most items in plastic here in Japan.
- ekianjo 7y agoIndeed they don't. Most of their items are directly available as-is on shelves, and you just get one big plastic bag at the cashier to bring them back home.
- snowAbstraction 7y agoI agree with you. I don't like unnecessary packaging. However, I am pretty sure the environmental impact of a plastic bag properly recycled or even incinerated is small compared to all the impacts of the individual item. I am thinking of things like the greenhouse gas emission of cotton crop. Maybe someone with a background in LCA knows the details [1]. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment
- coldtea 7y ago>I like Uniqlo, but one thing that has annoyed me about them is the environmentally unsound practice of packaging each individual item (T-Shirts, etc) in a thick plastic wrapper. The environmental costs of production, transporation, storage, promotion, and display of each of their t-shirts would dwarf 1000 times the environmental cost of the plastic wrapper. So much so that removing it would be a moot point -- like optimising a function that the code spends 0.01% of its time in. Removing it would be just the environment theater / token gesture companies love. What's worse, the "fast fashion", "consume clothing/throw it away/don't hand it down/don't keep it longer" mentality necessary for Uniqlo and others to show growth year after year has even worse impact on the environment.
- djmobley 7y agoI wouldn’t classify UNIQLO as fast fashion. The majority of their products are unbranded essentials with far greater durability and build quality than your typical “fast fashion” retailers.
- Bayart 7y agoThey're a step above the likes of H&M, but they're still fundamentally shipping mass-produced clothing from Asia made from mass-produced material. It's not exactly fast-fashion, but not the opposite of it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- coldtea 7y agoMaybe "disposable fashion/clothing" is a better term?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- on_and_off 7y agoTrue, they are not fast fashion but their environmental and employment practices are definitely way worse than what you could hope for. https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-uniqlo/ https://goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is-uniqlo/
- hadrien01 7y agoApart from underwear, I have never seen anything wrapped at Uniqlo
- spodek 7y agoWatch the True Cost, a documentary on clothing, and you might not like Uniqlo any more. It's available free here: http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-true-cost http://thoughtmaybe.com/the-true-cost.
- tempsy 7y agoErm the environment cost of the fast fashion as an industry is mind boggling. plastic wrapped t-shirts is literally the least environmentally damaging thing about their business.
- saagarjha 7y agoIs it possible to recycle fabric? I know this is worse than just not buying clothes all the time, but I wonder if there is better things that you can do than just throwing away garments that aren't fashionable anymore.
- cnasc 7y agoIn the past, discarded fabric would be turned into rag paper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag-and-bone_man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rag-and-bone_man https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_paper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_paper
- mirimir 7y agoMy favorite winter aviator-style hat was knitted from scraps of old silk saris. I got it at "Ten Thousand Villages", as I recall. Also some beautiful twine. Recycled wool is also common.
- tempsy 7y agoNo it isn’t
- on_and_off 7y agoIn general, Uniqlo sadly makes very little effort in order to reduce its enormous environmental cost :( . I hope they would do better, but I am not surprised that they don't even try to reduce single use plastic usage such as this.