Glass for Life

Overview

The Japanese southern island of Okinawa Prefecture, warm all year, this popular tourist spot is home to "Ryukyu Glass," a local industry for over 100 years. Glass blower Matsumoto Sakae insists on using discarded bottles as raw material. He says their status as trash inspires him to give them beauty, making things that will be loved and never again thrown away. Hoping, in some small way, to reduce waste in the world, he keeps his furnace hot and his tools ready.