Plastic Bottles Transformed into Stylish Home Decoration Items – a Great Idea to Heal Our World
News about Mariam, the dugong that died of eating plastic, and concerns about the impact of micro-plastics that threaten marine life has urged society to realise the environmental damage caused by improper handling of plastic waste.
Topped with a more severe global environmental situation, it was the starting point for Ichitan Group to partner with Qualy, an eco-friendly home decoration brand, to launch the Ichitan Green Factory Zero Waste project. The project works on bringing damaged and defective plastic bottles from the production process in the factory to go through an upcycling process, transforming plastic waste into chic home decoration items, reducing the burden of natural degradation, as well as reducing plastic waste by more than 10 tons.
Moby, a whale-shaped plastic bag keeper for reuse, is one of many products inspired by the news of whales that died of consuming plastic wastes. The product is created to reflect the problem of plastic waste that threatened marine life. This beautiful blue Moby whale, made from 28 defective PET bottles, is a home-use item that helps us realise how we should be careful in using resources and not generating more plastic waste that would cause an impact on marine animals.
Mr.Viroj Supasoon, Executive Vice President – Factory Department of Ichitan Group Public Company Limited, said, "Both Ichitan Group and Qualy share a common goal of operating the business under the concept of renewable economy to inspire people to see environmental problems that are not very far from their daily lives, not to mention that they affect all we human beings and other living things in the world. Originally, Ichitan Group is committed to doing business for sustainable growth. Thus, Ichitan Green Factory uses technology to reduce, replace, treat and renew energy for which we received Green Industrial Level 4 certification as a complete green factory that has modified its production processes to be environmentally friendly, while using energy efficiently. With the goal of reducing waste from production processes, we want to increase the value and gain benefit from plastic waste in a creative way.”
Mr.Teerachai Suppameteekulwat, Design Director and Co-Founder of Qualy brand from New Arriva Company Limited, said, "Plastic bottles damaged in the manufacturing process would normally be sent for recycling. Following this partnership between Ichitan and Qualy, the process is now changed to upcycling as we aim to create new value with that plastic waste. Adding design to these newly-upcycled products adds beauty, attractiveness and touchable points that allow consumers to be open to and accept the plastic waste’s new life. It is also a way to communicate our good intentions to reduce waste through a collection of animals – whales, seahorses, and polar fauna – affected by the plastic waste problem under the sea in the face of the shocking news reported all over the world. The collection also includes clouds and forests.
"The Ichitan x Qualy partnership through the Ichitan Green Factory Zero Waste project sets out to use 10 tons of plastic waste, which is equivalent to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 52,000 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide and can be compared to 30 rai of new plantation or 3,000 teak trees planted,” added Mr. Viroj.
Ichitan and Qualy agree that this partnership will kick the first door open to change in our society. If this project can spark ideas for various organisations to become aware of how they can transform waste from their production into valuable products, developing new things out of them and helping the environment a little bit more, we consider that a success.
“Thailand is currently the 6th largest producer of plastic waste in the world. If we do not tackle this problem systematically, it will cause an environmental problem that is hard to solve. The Ichitan Green Factory Zero Waste project is focused on reducing waste throughout the production process. It is how we want to show our strong intention as entrepreneurs focused on reducing waste and use of plastic in a very concrete way. We want to inspire people in our society to change their behaviour and get together to collaborate in using resources responsibly. And that would lead to how we can reduce the impact on the environment in every activity in our daily life and maintain a good quality of life with sustainable development.”
For project information, please click to see the video below:
