Tag: Thailand

Turning Plastic Into Robes

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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

China is Forcing the World to Rethink Recycling

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In 2017, China banned all plastic from entering the country. This single decision has disrupted the entire global flow of recycling. Stuff that once found its way to China is now ending up in Vietnam, Thailand, and most of all, Malaysia.

But those countries can’t process the amount of plastic China used to, and waste from the US, Europe, Japan, and beyond is piling up in small mountains.

China’s ban didn’t break the system, but it revealed just how broken it really is. In episode one of our Quartz’s video series Because China, they go to Malaysia, Shanghai, and New Jersey to figure out what is going on in the wild world of recycling.

Garbage Wars: Where Does the World’s Trash Go?

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You may not know it, but your trash probably travels more than you do. The moment a plastic container ends up in your recycling bin marks the beginning of a long trip halfway across the world.

The recycling journey, until recently, ended in China, where it was cleaned, crushed and transformed into raw material. But in 2018, Beijing decided it would no longer welcome the world’s trash. With the loss of their overseas dumping ground, rich countries turned to other markets, mainly in Southeast Asia.

Flooded with foreign trash, countries like Thailand and Malaysia eventually put their foot down, some even sending trash back to where it came from.