Singha Estate and Project Won by TPBI joined hands in launching the initiative to recycle plastic wastes from its construction projects, beginning with the ESSE Sukhumvit 36 as a pilot project, that is in line with the circular economy philosophy. The initiative expects to bring plastic wastes from this construction site back into recycle loop at around 90%. Singha Estate has aimed to become a global sustainable property developer with “Enriching Life” brand philosophy by implementing the Green Value Chain model and encouraged all stakeholders to use resources efficiently while minimize negative impacts on the environment.
Mr. Nattavuth Mathayomchan, Chief Residential Development Officer, Singha Estate PCL., revealed “Singha Estate is a property developer that is dedicated to delivering “best-in-class” projects for our customers, creating values for the society, and paying attention to any business operation that may affect environment. The company has been specially concerned on the issue of plastic wastes and put a significant effort to solve this issue with other parties. We have conducted several studies on the effects of plastic wastes on various aspects, especially regarding the environment, and found that Thais produced plastic wastes of around 2 million tons per year. However, only 0.5 million tons of those plastics had been recycled, leaving a great deal of the long-lasting material piling up in landfills, which is not a proper way of waste management since it involves high costs and pollutes large areas of lands. Moreover, plastic trash from landfills can overflow into waterways and oceans if not managed properly.”
“Singha Estate has therefore initiated several projects on environmental preservation. We are an active member of the Thailand Responsible Business Network (TRBN) and has also cooperated with the Send Plastic Home project. All those attempts reflect our corporate philosophy in using natural resources efficiently and wisely. We have encouraged our stakeholders to sort wastes properly to bring recyclable plastics back into circular economy and never becomes marine debris. These can help eliminated overflow of wastes from cities into oceans.”
As a property developer, it is inevitable for Singha Estate to not using plastic packagings in its project construction. Scrap from a construction process include disposed materials, concrete, metals, woods, plastic wraps and furniture warps. According to the Pollution Control Department, there has been around 300 tons of wastes produced from all construction sites across Bangkok per day. Singha Estate has taken this into account and looked for solutions to minimize effects on environment as per the SDG 11 “sustainable cities and communities” philosophy that the company has adhered to.
Recently, Singha Estate has partnered with Project Won by TPBI PCL. in recycling plastic wastes from the company’s construction sites. This signifies a meaningful cooperation between the two companies in solving the problem.
“Project Won” is an initiative from TPBI PCL. aiming to creatively solve the issue of plastic wastes by using the Circular Economy philosophy in order to keep recyclable plastics in the loop as long as possible.
Mr. Kamol Borrisuttanakul, founder of Project Won and CFO at TPBI PCL., said “Project Won has applied the idea of Circular Economy to educate people, suggest methods of waste segregation and preparation waste plastics for recycling process. We want to truly make renewable uses of plastics materials. The partnership with Singha Estate is considered the first in the real estate industry and is also the first time that Project Won would recycle scrap plastics from a construction process. We believe this partnership will lead to other corporations with Singha Estate in the future. Gather plastic wastes will be recycled at the TPBI plant and reprocessed into plastic and garbage bags for the Environment Department, The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to use on its social works”
The first site that Singha Estate and Project Won will start to implement this initiative is the ESSE Sukhumvit 36, which is the company’s first masterpiece and ultimate-luxury condominium of which the construction work has been completed by 80%. The property is a joint venture partnership between Singha Estate and Hong Kong Land, a leading property investment, management and development group. The initiative estimated that around 90% of all scrap plastics from this construction site can be gathered for recycling. Moreover, 1,000 kilograms of scrap plastics collected from this site in cooperation with Project Won can be reprocessed into more than 4,000 plastic bags or garbage bags. Moreover, Singha Estate has received collaboration from its contractor company and partner that are BOUYGUES-THAI Co. Ltd. and Frametek Window and Door Co. Ltd. on plastic collection and sorting. They also provide a clean storage for collected materials that would be later handed to Project Won.
“Singha Estate aims to become a “Sustainable Global Property Developer” with Enriching Life Brand Philosophy by applying the Green Value Chain model on all our future projects. We will collaborate with all related parties across the process to work in an environmental-conscious manner to minimize impact on the environment. These include our property designs that need to be environmental friendly, the procurement process to acquire contractors who share the same vision, uses of unhazardous materials, and application of new innovation and technology in the whole stages of a product life cycle. We want to make sure that resources are used efficiently through business process until we deliver quality products to our customers.” Mr. Natthavuth concluded.