Gulf Launches PET Bottle Recycling Into Upcycled Products
Gulf Development has collected over 1.1 tonnes of PET bottles from employees across seven Eastern Thailand offices in the first half of 2024, diverting the waste to Jak Daeng Temple for upcycling into clothing, blankets, and household items
Gulf Development Company is building a corporate green culture by expanding its "Our Bottles" waste-sorting programme into its second year, reaching seven Eastern Thailand regional offices. Between January and July 2024, the initiative collected 1,183 kilograms of used PET plastic bottles from employees, which were delivered to Jak Daeng Temple for upcycling into new products such as robes, blankets, clothing, and household items made from plastic fibre—reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2.48 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Sitamon Rattanawadee, Strategic Planning Director at Gulf, presented the collected bottles to Abbot Phra Maha Pranorm Thammaliangkaro at Jak Daeng Temple in Samut Prakan on 7 August 2024. Sitamon explained that the programme encourages employees to adopt simple, sustainable environmental practices through PET bottle sorting, ensuring waste enters proper management channels rather than polluting the environment. Since the project launched in 2023, Gulf has collected a combined 1,637 kilograms of PET bottles, preventing the release of 3.42 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and demonstrating how continuous waste segregation and management practices within an organisation can yield tangible environmental benefits. The Abbot noted that the temple and Gulf collaborate to transform collected bottles into various products including clothing and blankets from the bottles themselves and keychains from caps, benefiting both society and the environment. He encouraged seeing discarded items as raw materials rather than waste, and suggested that alongside managing external waste through recycling, individuals should also cultivate mental discipline to manage internal "waste"—anger, disappointment, and attachment—through mindfulness and compassion. One participating employee expressed pride in the initiative, noting that understanding where sorted PET bottles ultimately end up and their new purpose reinforces the importance of building environmental awareness.