The producer of Aqua and Swedish clothing giant Hennes & Mauritz, better known as H&M, is working together to recycle plastic bottles into fashion products.
“We realize that the solution for the plastic waste problem in Indonesia must be solved through multi-stakeholder collaboration,” said Corine Tap, the President Director of Tirta Investama, a local company that produces Aqua and also act as the local unit of French consumer giant Danone, as quoted by The Jakarta Globe.
The collaboration agreement between the two companies was signed by Tap and H&M Indonesia country production manager Jessica Vilhelmsson during The Alliance for Marine Plastic Solutions Forum in Bali on Tuesday.
The signing was also attended by Arif Havas Oegroseno, deputy for maritime sovereignty at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry. The government has pledged to reduce marine pollution by 70 percent by 2025 in Indonesia.
The collaboration, called Bottle2Fashion, will see Tirta Investama collect plastic bottle waste in Jakarta’s Thousand Islands district and then transport it to Kahatex, a West Java-based integrated textile company, after it has washed the plastic and shredded it into flakes.
By Kahatex, the plastic flakes will be processed into polyester material, which will then be used to make clothing products at its garment manufacturing facility.
Vilhelmsson said that she hoped the project would help solve the problem of plastic waste in Indonesia, who is the world’s second-largest plastic polluter after China. The collaboration, she added can be an “inspiration for other companies to collaborate on innovative solutions.”
Featured Image via LBB