With plastic-eating machines, Thai communities turn a profit fighting pollution

I found the workshop down a narrow soi in Bangkok’s old town. Several large sacks of plastic bottle caps, carefully sorted by colour, were propped up by the entrance.  

Machines filled the rest of the shed, but this wasn’t a big, industrial set up. The machinery was small-scale and hand operated. Its purpose was to turn those plastic caps into something new, ensuring they would no longer head to landfill or, worse, into the ocean.  

This was the workshop of Precious Plastic Bangkok, and it was a pleasure to write this article about their work providing communities around Thailand with machines to recycle plastic into useful products that can be sold for a profit.

The extruder melts old bottle caps so they can be shaped into new products. Photo: Ewen Mcleish

During my research I took part in a plastic recycling workshop where I learned how the process works and even made my own flowerpot! It looked a bit dodgy due to my inexpert hands, but I could see how, with a bit of practice lots of different containers could be created.

Precious Plastic have equipped communities with knowledge, tools and machines to recycle plastic. I was lucky enough to interview representatives of four of these initiatives about how how the projects were unfolding in their different geographies. Everyone involved was so enthusiastic about tackling the plastic pollution crisis.

A community group works together to sort plastic bottle caps into colours.
Photo: Precious Plastic Bangkok. 

Thanks to Dominic Chakrabongse and Jisara Suwannasri, both of Precious Plastic Bangkok for all their help in writing it all up.

I received some really nice comments from them after the article was published:

"We want to extend a heartfelt thanks to you for writing a fantastic article about Precious Plastic Bangkok. Your article has helped to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and the positive impact it can have on our community and the environment. We are truly grateful for your support and for helping to spread our message."

- Jisara

"Thank you, Ewen Mcleish, for your wonderful article about Precious Plastic Bangkok. It was incredibly thoughtful of you to take the time to share our mission and the work that we do with your readers. Your article has helped to raise awareness about the importance of recycling and the positive impact it can have on our community and the environment. We are truly grateful for your support and for helping to spread our message!"

- Dominic

Check out the full article here on Bangkok Coconuts!

Going Green: 8 ways we're acting on the government's sustainability strategy

I earn my bread and butter as a primary teacher at an international school here in Bangkok. Alongside helping youngsters learn the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, I lead the school's approach to sustainability. 

I was interested to find out that the UK government published a policy paper on sustainability, climate change and education in 2022. Given that British international schools, including my own, make a show of keeping up to date with the latest policy developments in the UK, I wondered what the ideas proposed would look like in my setting. 

Writing the piece also gave me the chance to read the paper closely and explore how schools can implement the ideas inside. I selected eight areas, explained them, then described how we're trying to meet them or what hurdles are getting in the way. 

The points I identified in the strategy were:

1. Bringing nature onto school grounds. 

2. Appointing sustainability leads in every school. 

3. Providing carbon literacy training for staff. 

4. Improving buildings to respond to climate change and reduce emissions. 

5. The educational opportunities that flow from any improvements implemented. 

6. Where in the curriculum should this learning be placed? 

7. How to handle political debate about environmental issues in the classroom. 

8. Celebrating the success of the young people involved. 

Full details of all of these can be found in my article published by TES Magazine here. 

One thing to note, I wanted to make the point (which comes through in the strategy) that retrofitting school buildings to become more climate friendly and reduce emissions can actually provide learning opportunities for pupils. Educators can use climate friendly adaptations like installing solar panels or heat pumps to create real life lessons. Giving children the chance to see how climate solutions are actually put into practice. I wish this had come across more clearly in the published article. 

Thai fishers step up to clear seas strangled by deadly ghost nets.

A Samut Prakan fisherman organising his nets after a night at sea. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish/Coconuts

It was really wonderful to get to write this story for Coconuts. To research the piece, I visited the Ko Tor fishing community (less than an hour from Bangkok) and met the inspirational and hard working Khun Pen. 

Her story intertwines with that of the sea, an ever-diminishing bounty blamed not only on climate change but also practices closer to home – industrial pollution, poorly designed nets, harmful abandoned gear – and innovative attempts to address them.

Originally, the aim of my trip was to find out about the 'Net Free Seas' fishing net recycling project, but Khun Pen told me how things had changed dramatically in her 3 decades at sea.  She's witnessed dolphins, crab, mackerel and others fall in numbers since she first went fishing. This seemed like a greater story.

I decided to document Khun Pen's view of the decline and how it effected her, and by implication similar artisanal fisher folk throughout Thailand. At the same time, her recognition that abandoned fishing nets floating aimlessly at sea are a problem she can do something about is a source of hope. 

I'm grateful to Rahul Mehrotra, a post-doctoral researcher at Chulalongkorn University and program director at the gulf-based Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center who explained the problems caused by discarded fishing gear and how researchers have little idea about the extent of the damage. 

This black tipped-reef shark died trapped in an abandoned net at Shark Bay on Koh Tao 

Photo: Kirsty Magson

"The Environmental Justice Foundation's Net Free Seas Project aims to connect small-scale fishing communities with recyclers, creating a supply chain that turns discarded fishing nets into homeware products for sale to consumers,” project coordinator Salisa Traipipitsiriwat told me. 

Khun Pen is heavily involved in the project purchasing the used and damaged nets from fellow fishers and selling them on to Cirplas Tech, the recycling company. After cleaning and processing, the resulting pellets are turned into lifestyle and homeware items by Qualy Design. 

Duanpen Jaengpracham, aka Khun Pen, stands with used fishing nets ready for recycling. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish / Coconuts

I was pleased to be able to interview and include Thosaphol Suppametheekulwat who owns both Qualy Design and Cirplas Tech.  This ensured the article painted a picture of the whole project. 

Carver table lamps made from recycled fishing nets by Qualy Design

Photo: Qualy Design

Thanks go to Salisa Traipipitsiriwat for arranging my trip to the fishing community, introducing me to Khun Pen and helping with translation for the article. 

Please click here to read the full story. 

COP26: How to use event to reduce pupil climate anxiety

Being a close follower of environmental news, I was keen to see how Glasgow's COP26 climate conference would pan out. As a teacher, I also wondered how the event and the hope that came with it could be highlighted to my young students. 

Children will be aware, albeit to varying degrees, of the wide range of extreme weather stories linked to climate change to hit the news agenda, and maybe that human actions in the form of burning fossil fuels are to blame. 

It's scary stuff and it's hard to teach. However, educators have a responsibility to help children understand what's happening. How can we present the facts without instilling climate anxiety amongst pupils? 

This is a very real issue, as an international study into the phenomenon, led by the University of Bath and funded by online campaign group Avaaz, outlines.

10,000 young people across 10 countries were asked about their thoughts and feelings on the issue. It found that 59 per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds were worried or extremely worried about climate change. 

But school aged children are also effected. 

Research conducted by the BBC's Newsround, which polled 2,000 8 to 16-year-olds in the UK, revealed how nearly three-quarters worried about the state of the planet. One in five admitted to having a bad dream about it.  

It strikes me that children need a more empowering, hopeful story around climate change in order to reduce feelings of despair. We need to acknowledge their worries, provide scientific explanations and then show how the adult world can take - and is taking - meaningful action. 

COP 26 was a chance to highlight to children that the climate emergency is not being ignored and that solutions are being sought. 

I planned, alongside my fellow sustainability coordinator at school, a trio of lessons to make the point.  The lessons were taught by other teachers in the school with slide shows we designed, using the freely available resources from Twinkl as a start point. 

The first lesson focussed on basic climate science and what COP26 was. The children learned how the conference aimed to bring countries together to report on their progress cutting emissions and hopefully come to agreement about further cuts. 

But we wanted to go further and help children understand that they can make their voices heard and demand more from politicians. 

This in mind, the second lesson invited pupils to enter an international competition run by UK-based Trust for Sustainable Living in partnership with Conservation Without Borders.  

The challenge was to create a video message to world leaders and governments on "the need for climate action and driving a green revolution". We ran the challenge as a "house competition" and received a decent number of entries, which were used as a basis for the third lesson sharing and celebrating the children's work.  

The winning entries were selected for entry into the international contest, and one of our pupils received special commendation from the judges. 

Overall, we hope we've helped children see COP26 as a chance for adults to work together to solve our climate problems - and that young people can and should demand that adults rise to the occasion. 

If any children in our care have feelings of climate anxiety, then this knowledge - and the opportunity to speak out - may foster a sense of hope within them for the future.  

I was delighted to see my article summarising the project published by Tes Magazine.