Buddhist monks in Thailand upcycle plastic bottles into saffron robes

Subscribe to our channel! rupt.ly/subscribe

Buddhist monks in Phra Pradaeng, Thailand, have come up with an innovative way of upcycling plastic waste that would otherwise contaminate the environment. Monks from the Wat Chat Daeng temple send plastic bottles they fish from the Chao Phraya River to be processed into synthetic fibres that are used to make their iconic safron robes.

"We had a big problem with trash, it was everywhere in the river, it would even enter the monastery, so we started with organic trash, like food, we made a machine that could make oil out of it. That was already 10 years ago, so that’s when we started recycling," stated Abbot of Wat Chat Daeng Pra Maha Ajarn Kai.

"Then, for the cloth, I had the idea because I saw some clothes in the market that had a 'recycled' sign on them, so I thought, really, we can make cloth out of trash? Let’s try," he said.

The monks are supported by volunteers who go on 'fishing' sprees with them to help collect the trash.

The collected and donated plastic is sent to a recycling plant where cotton and zinc oxide is mixed with the plastic bottle material. The resulting synthetic fibres are then blended with cotton strands which the monks use to make the monastic robes. Roughly 12 plastic bottles are said to be used to make one robe and as the monks are not permitted to sell them they give them away to other monasteries.

"We do it in the morning mostly, with low tide. Even without going too far, in the vicinity of the temple, in just one hour we can collect up to two tons of trash sometimes, it happened. But on a normal day, 200 to 300 kilos," said Deputy Abbot Phra Maha Pranom Dhammalangkaro.

He recounted that villagers would once come and pick the trash in order to sell it. "But now prices are low and there is nowhere to sell so they don't come any more and it’s full of trash," he added.

"Buddhists believe that if you want to get rid of the trash produced by your brain, you should start by cleaning around you. Then you’ll be at peace," Phra Maha Pranom Dhammalangkaro explained.

Video ID: 20191011 044
Video on Demand:
Contact: cd@ruptly.tv

Twitter:
Facebook:

news,ruptly,