Fake Soil Saves Planet - Japanese Plastic Dirt 'Pafcal'Fake Soil Saves Planet - Japanese Plastic Dirt 'Pafcal'

Fake Soil Saves Planet - Japanese Plastic Dirt 'Pafcal'

Leave it to the Japanese to save the planet by covering concrete buildings in fake plastic. In an effort to help keep Tokyo and other cities green and ease the so-called “heat-island” problem of rising temperatures in crowded metropolitans, Japanese brewer Suntory Ltd. has created an alternative to soil. The motivation behind the fake soil is that Tokyo has very strict load requirements due to its earthquake-prone location, hence real dirt is hard to come by.
The synthetic dirt substitute, ’Pafcal‘, weighs less than half as much as real soil and is made of urethane. When used as a roof garden, it can reduce the internal temperature of a building up to 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees Fahrenheit).