Upcycling the Oceans Tailandia
The objective of the project is to recover marine debris with fishermen’s help, beach-cleaning associations and diver communities, as well as raising awareness about the problem with ocean pollution amongst tourists and citizens.
The project “Upcycling the Oceans Thailand” it has previewed duration of three years, from 2017 until 2020. It focuses on education and promotes the concept of responsible tourism while activities of waste management such as the recovery, segregation and plastic waste transformation are carried out. Then, through a sustainable and innovate technological process, the plastic is transformed into raw materials. Lastly, using this raw material, sustainable fashion products are made. This initiative not only helps to clean the ocean but also promotes the circular economy as well as raises awareness in touristic coastal areas of Thailand.
8 million tonnes
of waste end up in the oceans every year. 60% of which come from Asian countries.
Outstanding actions
• On September 1st 2017, the first official event took place on the island of Koh Samed. It started with 100 divers, 300 volunteers and 3 project leaders. After 5 hours of hard work, a total of 0,7 tonnes of marine waste was collected.
• On the 28th of January 2018, another event took place in Phuket. This included of 900 volunteers cleaning the beaches and 85 divers cleaning the sea beds. In total 0,85 tonnes of waste was recovered.
•On December 20th 2019, UTO was launched at Commemoration Public Park, Ban Phe in the eastern coastal province of Rayong where 200 volunteers and 100 divers collected 0,95 tonnes of marine debris.
