A Tasmanian sushi shop owner has helped launch an environmentally friendly way for customers to take away soy sauce with purchased sushi.
Sush co-owner David Painter unveiled Angus Ware’s “Holy Carp” product at Franklin Wharf in Hobart on Friday.
Ware, who group up in Hobart, claims this is the world’s first home compostable soy sauce dispenser.
The single-use dispenser is made from plant pulp and made into a paper-like product to hold the soy sauce and is aimed at replacing the plastic “soy fish” containers that accompany takeaway sushi across Australia.
Painter’s own environmental awakening dates back to 1999 during a trip to Tasmania.
“We went on a walk to the South West Cape and on the beach there were literally millions of plastic pebbles, it was like millions of Lego pieces in psychedelic colours,” he said.
“I came back two days later with a camera and the beach was empty – they had all been swept back into the sea.”
Ware said he was struck with the irony of a plastic fish ending up in the ocean and causing harm and decided to do something about it.
“When it goes into the ocean it harms marine life and then can end up in our bodies as micro-plastics,” he said.
Ware’s eureka moment came in 2020 while working in Sydney, where he noticed countless discarded soy fish containers littering streets and gutters.
“You would see them on the ground or in the cracks between paving stones, always standing out with their distinctive red lid,” he said.
“Again, it was crazy and ironic that the plastic fish would end up in Sydney Harbour.”
The Holy Carp container holds 8ml of soy sauce and was developed with Sydney design studio Vert Design.
