Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited (CP Foods) has teamed up with partners and fishermen to upcycle plastic bottles collected from the sea into polo-shirts for employees. The objective of the pilot initiative is to help reduce the problem of plastic waste in Thailand.
“As a leading food producer, CP Foods places great importance on responsible fisheries through the use of sustainable by-products such as fishmeal along with multiple mangrove conservation projects,” explained Pairoj Apiruknusit, CP Foods’ Executive Vice President for Integrated Aquaculture. “We are also promoting efficient marine waste management in line with the circular economy principle and the guidelines around the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
This includes supporting the “Catch the Trash Project” led by the Department of Fisheries and the Fisheries Association of Thailand. The project involves launching campaigns to stop fishing vessels throwing waste into the sea and bring it back onshore for proper waste management instead.
CP Foods has expanded the scope of the campaign to cover waste collection coupled with sorting, management, and recycling into upcycled products.
The company together with its fishmeal factory, JDP, and fishermen in Trang province, launched a pilot project to investigate the types and amount of waste collected from the sea and disposal methods.
Following through, the company is experimenting with producing upcycled polo shirts made from PET bottles collected from the ocean. The first batch of 500 sustainable shirts will be distributed to CP Foods’ employees working at Mahachai Feed Mill in Samutsakhon province.
“CP Foods encourages fishermen to bring ocean waste back to shore for recycling and reusing to help resolve the problem of marine trash and maintain the balance of marine ecosystems,” Mr. Pairoj continued. “This will eventually support the company’s mission to build food security as well as SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) for the conservation and sustainable use of marine resources.”
He added that the company is putting into place more sustainable aquaculture practices aimed at reducing environmental impacts throughout the value chain, including applying a “Zero Discharge” approach in the company's shrimp farms across Thailand.
The company has also been implementing CPF's “Grow-Share-Protect Mangrove Forestation” project since 2014. This project aims to conserve and restore mangrove forests in Rayong, Samut Sakhon, Chumphon, Songkhla, and Phang Nga, by continually afforesting, reforesting and monitoring mangrove to conserve and nurture coastal ecosystems.
