For the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, they are making a number of efforts to create a recycling-oriented society, with the goal of operating the Expo in a fully sustainable manner and reducing waste as much as possible through reduction and reuse.

Large quantities of food and drinks will be supplied all at once at the Expo site, which will be visited by a lot of people in a short period of time. This makes the issue of leftover food and disposable plateware waste unavoidable. The Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition has made it mandatory for food trucks, which frequently use disposable plateware, to utilize reusable plateware when serving food and beverages, but assumes that it will be challenging to gather reusable plateware in some food truck areas. In contrast to “edish,” biodegradable plastic containers will be used in these areas to compost them alongside food waste. Additionally, the “edish” plateware that was adopted this time will be used at some of the events held on the site, and will be composted together with food waste after being used.

Yanase intended to create “edish” to address the issue of the massive amount of “waste generated at the site” that the Expo is attempting to address. Under normal circumstances, leftover food and disposable containers would be incinerated. Japan incinerates 80% of its waste, which is a remarkably high percentage when compared to other countries. In particular, food scraps and other food waste have a high moisture content, making it inefficient to incinerate them and necessary to use large amounts of fossil fuels. In light of this current situation, Yanase aims to raise awareness of alternatives to “burning.” This has been his strong desire ever since he decided to participate in the Co-Design Challenge. His passion comes from ordinary moments from his childhood, which were full of customs common in rural Japan.

Yanase was born and raised in local cities rich in nature, such as Marugame City in Kagawa Prefecture, Imabari City in Ehime Prefecture and Matsue City, by his father who was transferred frequently for work. In particular, in Marugame City, where he lived with his grandparents, there were fertile fields all around their house, and whenever food scraps like vegetable and fruit peels and used tea leaves piled up, he saw his grandmother taking them to the composting area in the fields as if it had been commonplace. One day, he was shocked to hear his grandmother say, “Food waste contains a lot of organic matter that becomes food for microorganisms.” It dawned on him that what he had previously considered to be filthy garbage was actually improving the quality of the soil, giving crops nourishment, and fostering the emergence of new life. In addition to saving money on fertilizer and garbage bags, it removes the need to burn trash. Yanase realized that it would be worth doing as it would be like killing three birds with one stone. This realization became the driving force behind Yanase’s actions, as he disliked things going to waste in any way. Even after he became a trading company employee, he held onto the belief that “if we can infuse value into materials that are being thrown away, we can create the strongest business model,” which led to the development of edish.