Poco A Poco was born as an educational toy brand that “Creates in the shapes of kindness and the future.” Thinking about things that are kind to people and the earth, we created the “Nijiiro Series” of recyclable toys using “rice husks”.
Factory Tour ～How the rainbow series was made～
Little Poco,
A bear cub who likes manufacturing things. Little Poco is part of Poco A Poco’s “Nijiiro Series”. From now on, let’s take a look at the “Nijiiro Series” together with Little Poco!
Higashi-Osaka, the city of manufacturing in Japan
Little Poco was born in Higashi-Osaka, a city of manufacturing. Little Poco knew that various materials are used in manufacturing. Plastic being one of them.
The plastic problem
Plastic is a lightweight material that can be molded into all kinds of shapes. It’s very convenient, but if you throw it away as garbage, the earth will become dirty. Little Poco, who likes making things, wanted to make things that are kind to the earth.
Make responsibly, use responsibly
Making things that are kind to the earth also leads to ensuring the safe and comfortable lives of everyone. Little Poco decided to take on manufacturing responsibility and create things for everyone.
What Little Poco found in the field
One day, Little Poco went out for a walk and came across a large rice field.
A lot of rice was growing and was ready to harvest.
Yummy rice and rice husks
Delicious rice comes out when you take the rice out of the “rice husk”.
The yummy rice goes to everyone’s dining table. But, where do the rice husks go after harvesting?
There are many discarded rice husks
Unfortunately, some rice husks are thrown away.
Could Little Poco use these rice husks, to make sure things don’t get thrown away? Little Poco thought.
Let’s try to combine rice husks and plastic!
Little Poco suddenly had a great idea!
If we combine the thrown away rice husks with plastic, we might be able to make something wonderful!
We will take a step toward “Waste free manufacturing”.
Let’s make fun toys!
Little Poco thought a lot and decided to create a toy that everyone would enjoy.
Time to prepare the pellets
By mixing rice husks and resin*, we have prepared 8 colors of rice husk resin pellets, which are the base of toys.
* Plastic is also called “resin”.
Draw up a blueprint
First, draw up a blueprint. Decide what shape you want and how big it is, all down to the smallest details.
Make a mold
Next, we make the shape based on the blueprint.
This is called a “mold”.
Make a shape with a molding machine.
The mold is set in a machine called a “molding machine”.
The pellets are melted in this machine, poured into a mold, cooled and solidified to create a shape.
Complete!
Once the shape is made, the part where the melted rice husk resin was poured in is cut off. Some of the parts are put together here to finish the toy.
Don’t worry, the parts that are cut off and not used are recycled into other toys.
Now we deliver to everyone
We carefully and wholeheartedly pack the toys into their box and deliver them to everyone.
Recycle after playing
If you have a “Niijiro Series” that you no longer use after playing with, please send it to Little Poco.
We will sort by color and then your loved toys will be reborn into new toys.
This is how the “Nijiiro Series”, a recyclable, earth-friendly toy, was born.