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Indorama Ventures works with HSBC to turn post-consumer PET into PPE suits for medical personnel in Thailand
Bangkok – Thailand – 1 September 2020 – In response to the pandemic, Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL), a global chemical company, is transforming post-consumer PET bottles into much-needed PPE suits. The PPE suits have been donated to local hospitals in need of equipment to protect local medical personnel working to fight the COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand.
Initiated by Less Plastic Thailand in May this year, the “Separate PET Bottles to Help Doctors” project brings together a range of local partners and their stakeholders to complete the end-to-end waste separation and PPE production process. As the world’s largest PET producer, IVL’s well-established recycling expertise and infrastructure is key to the project’s operation.
Under the project, approximately 360,000 PET bottles have been recycled and converted into high-quality yarn at IVL's recycling facilities in Nakhon Pathom and Rayong, and later cut to produce more than 16,000 PPE suits. The project aims to deliver these protective suits to over 200 hospitals nationwide by August 2020 to protect medical personnel from COVID-19 infection during the performance of their duties.
HSBC Thailand, the country’s first commercial bank, participated as a PET collection point, encouraging all staff to donate empty drinking bottles to the cause.
Mr. Richard Jones, Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications at Indorama Ventures, said, "IVL is delighted to bring onboard key partners such as HSBC to take part in this much-needed recycling project during the COVID-19 crisis. The bottles collected by HSBC’s employees will be converted into recycled yarns to produce PPE suits made from 100% recycled PET bottles sourced in Thailand. By utilizing our facilities, IVL aims to minimize the amount of waste sent to landfills and promote the efficient use of resources through recycling, which is in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fostering sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12).”
Over the course of the project, HSBC has contributed more than 200 kilograms of post-consumer bottles to make 650 recycled PPE suits to be used when treating low-to-medium risk patients. This is also equivalent to a reduction in around 300 kilograms of carbon emission.
Mr. Krisda Phatcharoen, Head of Commercial Banking, HSBC Thailand, said, "This is another great collaboration between sectors while we are facing COVID-19. HSBC is one of many corporations that have been assisting people affected by the pandemic as well as working with partners to benefit the society constructively. We are thrilled to play a part in IVL’s efforts to create a circular value chain.”
To bring the end-to-end initiative to life Less Plastic Thailand – a local environmental conservation network - has brought together a range of partners including Indorama Ventures, Thai Taffeta Co., Ltd., Thong Thai Textile Co., Ltd., TOA Paint (Thailand) Public Company Limited and GoWith20.