The activity gave the employees a huge sense of pride, whilst having a positive impact on the environment and the team’s local community.
The team at GKN Automotive in Rayong, participates in a minimum of two projects a year that benefit the communities in which their plants operate. The activities chosen are usually decided and put forward by members of the Rayong team. As well as a contribution from the business to assist the chosen programmes, employees give their own personal time to ensure as big an impact as possible is made.
The latest activity chosen by the Rayong team started when they recognised that they were creating a lot of unnecessary waste. Employees were asked to come up with ideas on how the plants could better manage their waste disposal, and so the “Love the Earth” programme was born. The project began in January 2020 and involved collecting plastic bottles which would otherwise be disposed of, and using them to make clothing for Buddhist Monks. The clothes were also sold by Buddhist Temples, with profits used to support worthy causes.
As of October 2020, approximately 20,000 plastic bottles had been collected by employees. With the amount that had been recycled, it was possible to make 1,500 sets of Monk robes! A group of employees from the Rayong team delivered the 20,000 plastic bottles to the Temple at Wat Jak Daeng, Prapadaend, Samutprakran, which is approximately 150km from the Rayong facility. At the Temple, the team were shown the process for recycling the plastic bottles so that they could be used as fabric.
As a predominantly Buddhist country, the activity of collecting the plastic bottles in Rayong and donating them to a worthy cause gave the employees a huge sense of pride, whilst having a positive impact on the environment and the team’s local community.