Buddhist monks in Thailand are recycling plastic bottles into robes. Thailand is a major contributor to plastic pollution. Thailand along with China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka generate up to 60% of plastic pollution in oceans. At the Wat Chak Daeng Buddhist temple located south of Bangkok, the abbot Phra Maha Pranom Dhammalangkaro is spearheading a project to recycle plastic bottles into the fabric for colored robes for monks.

“Don’t think that the waste problem can’t be solved. Buddha taught us that there is always a solution to every problem.”

—Phra Maha Pranom Dhammalangkaro, Deputy Abbot of the Wat Chak Daeng Temple