Charging for plastic bags

As of July 1st, 2020, Japan requires all retailers to charge customers for plastic bags. While the new rule is intended to reduce plastic waste, Japanese customers who have been accustomed to getting plastic bags for free when they shop are now faced with the additional inconvenience of bringing their own bag to avoid being charged. It demands adding a new routine to your daily life, and one which may not be easy to get used to. You may think of bringing bags in your briefcase or handbag, but what happens when you're just running down to the convenience store? You're likely to forget.

A handy solution

Enter graduate student and designer Tsukasa Hattori, who uploads videos of his creations and shares the latest information on DIY manufacturing and other useful knowledge on his YouTube Channel, Tsukasa-3D.

Using a 3D printer, he designed a convenient "Spiderman"-style wrist-worn gadget which shoots plastic bags from your wrist. He calls his gadget the "Sack-Shooter," and you can see it in action in the video below:

Since revealing his design for this handy gadget, he's made an improvement. In the original design, you had to use your other hand to detach the bag once ejected from the Sack-Shooter. This improved version allows you to detach the bag with the same hand:

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Tuskasa-3D Links

If you peruse his YouTube Channel, you'll see that Tsukasa-3D's creativity is far from limited to sack-shooting gadgets. For example, he has also designed a finger-shield to protect people during the pandemic.

If you'd like to learn more, you can visit his official website, follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube Channel.

He's also open to commissions for product design and development and producing working prototypes, so please DM him on Twitter if you're interested.

• Official Website
• Twitter
• YouTube Channel