“BEAUTY FROM JUNK”

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30007, 17 December 1962, Page 2

“BEAUTY FROM JUNK”

Glassware From Bottles Some of the most attractive glassware being made in Asia today comes from a most unlikely source—junk heaps of broken soft-drink bottles, according to an article entitled “Beauty from Junk” in a recent edition of an Asian-wide periodical, the “Asia Magazine.” An enterprising glass manufacturing company in Okinawa, an island without natural materials for glass making, now buys large quantities of the bottles from local junk men and has them tipped on a heap in a yard next to the factory, says the article. From this "otherwise useless relic of a million quenched thirsts,” a small team of local women sorts the fragments into colours. The glass is then washed and broken into smaller fragments and put into the factory furnace by the night-duty man for melting down. This "delightfully casual industrial process" starts up again when the regular staff arrive next morning, continues the article. Blowers, whose skill in shaping with pliers and other instruments is equalled only by their lungpower, then produce a varied assortment of glassware—water pitchers, cocktail mixers, cups, saucers, vases, glasses, and several other staple lines. Among these are some of the most delightful shapes in contemporary glassware anywhere in Asia, the article says. Colours range from the green and dark brown of two well-known brands of softdrink to a handsome beer bottle brown and fancy lines in red and blue obtained by adding colour to clear glass during melting. Established in 1959, the company, employing a staff of 28, still has difficulty in meeting the demand for its products, most of its customers being United States military personnel stationed on the island.