Dress code: soccer shirts made from PET bottles

Asia – Japanese firm Teijin group has launched a special project to collect used PET bottles and recycle these into polyester fibre for the production of kid’€™s t-shirts with the help of a private school in Thailand’€™s capital Bangkok. The initiative reflects Teijin’s ambition to expand its business in Thailand, a key hub in the company’s global production operations.

Two reverse vending machines, which accept post-consumer PET bottles and pay the user a fee, will be installed at the school campus, and the school management will encourage their use by teachers, employees, students and visitors.

Teijin Polyester, a Thai subsidiary of Teijin Group that produces polyester fibre, collects the bottles from the machines and recycles these into polyester fibre, which it will use to produce t-shirts for students who participate in soccer clinics organised by the Assumption College Primary Section (ACP) and the Japan Dream Football Association (JDFA), an organisation that supports young soccer players in Southeast Asia.

ACP is one of several campuses operated by Assumption College. The school expects to create more environmental awareness through this ‘fun and educational’ collaboration with Teijin. 

According to Teijin, the collaboration with ACP is expected to boost awareness of its environmental initiatives as well as recognition of the Teijin Brand in Thailand.

Teijin is a technology-driven global company active in the areas of sustainable transportation, information and electronics, safety and protection, environment and energy, and healthcare. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibres. The US US$7.4 billion turnover group has some 150 companies and around 16 000 employees in more than 20 countries worldwide.