Taiwan Charity Recycles Bottles for a Good Cause 

2009-11-06 10:16

 

For the past three years, the Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has been taking plastic bottles from Taipei to convert them into polyester blankets intended for disaster zones.

This week, the Tzu Chi expanded its one-of-a-kind recycling effort to begin making shirts, scarves and cloth shopping bags.

[Walter Huang, Chairman, Daai Technology Co., Ltd.]:
"The most important thing is to deliver the message and value through our products. This shirt is not just about fashion, but a statement saying that whenever I wear this, I care about the earth. This is the most important thing. We also wish to encourage everyone to recycle and reuse, extend the lives of objects; this is wisdom."

A polo shirt is made from 12 bottles, and a scarf is made from 9 bottles.   

Some of the new shirts, scarves and bags will go directly to disaster areas. Others will be sold locally to fund other kinds of disaster relief.

The factory produces more than 3,000 blankets per day and gives credit to its volunteers.

Groups of students frequently visit the recycling center.

[He Yao-tung, Student Volunteer]:
"In the past I did not know plastic bottles could become clothes; this is magical. This may be just because I am not very knowledgeable. When I was sorting the bottles I could understand the hard work behind it. It helps me to learn about different values."

Tzu Chi is a private group founded in 1966. It has sent volunteers with relief supplies to some of the world's biggest disasters, including hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake in China.

As of October 2009, Tzu Chi has distributed more than 200,000 blankets to people in 20 countries.