“We asked ourselves what we could do for the environment in the toilet?” said Ryusuke Nagahara of the Japan Toilet Labo. “The answer is to save toilet paper and save water.”

Studies have shown that people use more toilet paper in public conveniences than they do in their own home. When a person doesn’t have to worry about the cost, they naturally use more. A Japanese industrial body has noted the rise in toilet paper sales over the last few years due to the increase in the number of toilets to be found in public.

Humour is often used to achieve the desired goals. “That paper will meet you only for a moment,” reads one poem. “Fold the paper over and over and over again,” says another. Or just: “Love the toilet.”

A similar concept has been started on the remote Scottish island of Shetland. There poets are being invited to submit their work to go on display in public toilets for the sake of poetry itself. The small island’s foremost poet and TS Eliot Prize winner Jen Hadfield said of the initiative:

“I’ve always loved the idea of sneaking poetry into unexpected places, proving that poetry’s place is in the real world, in real time.”

The competition which has been named the ‘Bards in the Bog’ will be open to people of all ages and can be about any subject matter they choose. However the poems have to be under twelve lines in length so as the words can be written in large letters for all to see. The closing date is Saturday 7th March.

Karen Fraser from Shetland Library said: “It should brighten up folk’s day, and maybe they’ll be inspired to pop into the library and borrow more poetry.”