Wat Chak Daeng Temple Plastic Recycling Center

WatBuddhist monastic complex that brings together, within a single enclosure, several religious buildings, monks’ quarters and ancillary buildings; the word does not refer to a single building. Chak Daeng stands in Phra Pradaeng district, Samut Prakan province, on the banks of the Chao Phraya, near the KhlongCanal or waterway, natural or man-made, which long played a major role in transport, irrigation and the organisation of settlements and territories in Thailand. Lat Pho canal and the Bhumibol Bridge. Here the river forms a wide loop enclosing a landscape of orchards and coconut groves, Khung Bang Krachao. The temple community describes this meander as a stomach-shaped island and presents it as the last great green lung close to the capital. The Chaipattana Foundation, which runs a programme to protect the area, likewise speaks of the ‘green lung of Bangkok’. To the west, the monastery is bordered by the Khlong Chak Daeng canal, which shares its name.¹⁴

The temple covers some two and a half hectares amid coconut palms. Its waterside position has shaped its recent history. Every tide deposits in front of it whatever the Chao Phraya carries: bottles, plastic bags, branches, pieces of glass. The unspoilt landscape of Bang Krachao thus also receives waste it does not itself produce. It was from this contrast that the project which made the temple known far beyond its province began.¹¹

Wat Chak Daeng is a wat ratsadonA Thai Buddhist monastery that does not belong to the category of royal temples; it is also called a ‘people’s temple’., a ‘common temple’, that is, a monastery that is not one of the royal temples. It belongs to the MahanikaiOne of the two main branches, or orders, of the Buddhist clergy of Thailand. order, one of the two main branches of the Buddhist clergy in Thailand. The community dates its official existence to the late eighteenth century: around 1787, the temple received the wisungkhamsimaA royal grant of the consecrated ground on which a monastery may build an ordination hall., the royal grant of the consecrated ground on which an ordinationCeremony by which a layperson is admitted as a novice or as a monk into the Buddhist community. hall may be built. The date remains approximate, but it places the monastery among the older foundations on this bank of the river.¹⁴

The oldest datable building is the ubosotConsecrated ordination hall of a wat: the ritually central building, marked out by sacred boundary stones, where monastic ordinations take place., the ordination hall in which ordinations and the major rites of the monastic community are held. Built in 1858 and restored in 1961, this elongated building measures nearly eight metres by twenty-four; its pediment is decorated with blue-and-white ceramics. The monks live in kutiCell or dwelling of a Buddhist monk within the precinct of a monastery., individual or shared lodgings, of which the temple has three. The principal imageIn Thai Buddhism, a devotional representation of the Buddha, most often a statue, venerated as an object of worship., that is, the most venerated Buddha statue in the monastery, is called Luang Pho Hin. It is housed in the wihan, the worship hall open to the faithful, having been found during excavations carried out around the old ubosot.¹⁵

Before it became associated with recycling, Wat Chak Daeng was a monastery of study. It houses the Bodhiyalai Institute and a centre devoted to the AbhidhammaThe part of Buddhist teaching that analyses the mind and phenomena., the part of Buddhist teaching that analyses the mind and phenomena. The monks follow the official examination curricula of the SanghaThe body of monks who reside in a monastery and live there according to religious discipline; in Buddhism it is called the sangha., the community of Buddhist monks, and lay people can attend weekend classes on the Abhidhammatthasangaha, a classic manual summarising this doctrine. This tradition of study sheds light on how recycling would come to be conceived at the temple: as a subject to be taught as much as a task to be done.¹³

In 2005, a monk settled at Wat Chak Daeng to teach and to manage it: Phra Maha Pranom Dhammalangkaro (born 1965). A native of Nakhon Ratchasima province, ordained in 1986, he trained in Thailand and then in Burma, at Amarapura and Yangon, and reached the sixth level of the PaliThe language of the canonical texts of Theravada Buddhism. examinations, Pali being the language of the canonical texts of TheravadaA branch of Buddhism whose canonical texts are written in Pali. Buddhism. It was thus a specialist in doctrinal teaching who arrived at the temple. He found a compound full of waste.¹⁹

Rather than simply having this waste removed, Phra Maha Pranom set about sorting and managing it on site. By 2019 he had been doing so for more than thirteen years. Over those years his role changed: first in charge of managing the monastery, he became its abbot and received the title of Phra Ratchawatcharabandit. This career closely ties the history of the recycling centre to that of one man and to his religious authority within the community.⁴

The work began with everyday waste. Food scraps and vegetables from the temple kitchen were turned into compost, and the rubbish brought in by the tides was collected in front of the monastery. The monks then looked for ways to give new value to what they gathered. Sorting gradually extended to many materials: plastic bags, food cartons, glass bottles, polystyrene, paper, cardboard, aluminium cans. Some of the paper and glass is sold on to be recycled elsewhere.¹¹

The temple equipped itself accordingly. It bought two shredders to break down the dead leaves of its wooded compound, and set up a large sorting warehouse and a composting machine for food waste. Over the years, the monastery thus became a religious site that doubled as a complete waste-management centre. But it was one material in particular, the plastic of bottles, that would give the project its new dimension.⁹

Around 2018, the temple launched a campaign to collect bottles for making monks’ robes. The initiative grew as partners came on board. The petrochemical company PTT Global Chemical visited the temple and joined the project, which became part of the ‘Our Khung Bang Krachao’ programme launched that same year by the Chaipattana Foundation for the area within the river bend. The act of sorting, born of a local problem, thus joined a broader effort to protect Bang Krachao.²

The idea rests on a simple choice: to transform the most visible waste into the most symbolic object of monastic life. The robe, traditionally offered by lay people to monks, becomes the destination of the collected bottles. The plastic no longer leaves the temple’s circle for an anonymous recycling chain; it returns as cloth, worn by the very people who sorted it.

Only PET, the clear plastic of water and drinks bottles, is used to make the fabrics. The caps, made of a different plastic, high-density polyethylene, are set aside. The bottles are cleaned and pressed into blocks before being turned into yarn. These synthetic fibres are then woven with cotton to produce a cloth in the saffron colours of monastic robes.³

How many bottles does it take to clothe a monk? The figures put forward vary, and the variation lies chiefly in what is being counted. A sign at the temple states that fifteen one-and-a-half-litre bottles are enough for one robe, that is, a piece of cloth about two metres long. But a Thai monk’s attire is a trai chiwonThe garment of a Thai Buddhist monk, made up of three pieces: the under-robe, the upper robe and the large outer cloak folded over the shoulder., a set of three pieces comprising the lower robe, the upper robe and the large outer robe folded over the shoulder. For a complete set, estimates rise to around sixty bottles, or about a kilogram of plastic. These discrepancies reflect less a contradiction than the difficulty of translating a length of cloth into a number of objects.¹⁸

The process evolved. In 2019, after three years of trials, Phra Maha Pranom developed a ‘nano-robe’ combining recycled plastic, cotton and zinc oxide nanoparticles. The monk, then, did not merely take up an existing technique: he sought to improve the cloth itself, blending religious learning with textile experimentation.⁶

In March 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, the temple adapted its production and made masks from recycled fabric. The monk Chamnanwej Sutthiyano wore one of these masks and inscribed a Buddhist formula on it, turning a sanitary object into a vehicle of religious protection. The episode shows the adaptability of a workshop able to respond to a new need within a few weeks, while keeping the link between recycled material and the religious word.⁷

At the heart of the project lies the notion of meritIn Buddhism, the benefit accumulated through virtuous acts, which structures the religious practice of lay people., the benefit accumulated through virtuous acts that shapes the religious practice of Buddhist lay people. Giving a bottle to the temple is presented as a meritorious act, and the robe woven from these bottles can then be offered to monks, renewing one of the oldest gifts in the tradition. The company OCC, indeed, named its initiative ‘Waste into Merit’, under the supervision of Arjan Suwan Rojana, the project’s manager.²²

The faithful have several ways of taking part. They can drop their bottles off at the temple, send them by post or, from six or seven large bags upwards, request a collection in the surrounding area. The temple asks them to remove caps and labels, cut off the neck ring and flatten the bottles. Companies also contribute: in 2021, PTT Global Chemical invited the public to donate bottles on the occasion of Asalha BuchaA Buddhist festival commemorating the Buddha’s first sermon., the festival commemorating the Buddha’s first sermon, and the firm Gunkul Engineering handed over a batch of bottles to the temple. Despite these contributions, the faithful’s demand for recycled robes exceeds the quantities collected.¹⁷

For Phra Maha Pranom, this work belongs to the Buddha’s teaching. He aims to use the problem of waste to pass on the dhammaBuddhist doctrine, that is, the teaching of the Buddha., Buddhist doctrine, starting from a reality familiar to everyone. Sorting, the care given to a bottle before it is donated, the passage from refuse to cloth become opportunities to speak of attentiveness, responsibility and detachment. The monastery of study thus extends into a workshop.⁵

This teaching is also practised beyond the compound. The temple organises clean-up days on the Chao Phraya; one of them brought together more than a hundred people aboard boats. The river, which once carried waste to the monastery’s door, becomes the setting for a collective effort in which monks and lay people come together around a shared task.¹⁸

Making and selling the robes is not directly the monks’ business. Financial matters are entrusted to the Wat Chak Daeng community enterprise, a local body that involves residents in the project. Among its core members is Nirut Anathamsombat, a former owner of a monastic robe factory, whose experience of the trade has supported the transition from plastic to cloth. Volunteer seamstresses assemble the robes, and the project provides a source of income for people with disabilities.³

The workshop produces more than robes. It also makes cloth bags, blankets, yellow polo shirts, T-shirts and blue sarongs with traditional patterns, as well as furniture. In 2019, the temple also produced Thai fabrics presented as eco-friendly. It makes amulets too, the phra khrueang, small sacred images that the faithful carry on their person. Recycled material thus enters both everyday clothing and devotional objects.⁴

The project relies on a network of partners. PTT Global Chemical is one of its main supporters, and the Chaipattana Foundation has included it in its programme for Khung Bang Krachao, which brings together some thirty companies. The retail group Central Tham has also joined. Other companies, such as Gunkul Engineering and OCC, contribute through occasional donations of bottles.⁴

These alliances have given the centre a visibility far greater than that of a provincial common temple. They have also helped make the Wat Chak Daeng Temple Plastic Recycling Center an example cited abroad. The ocean conservation organisation Ocean Conservancy has praised its practical contribution to the fight against plastic pollution and its role in raising public awareness.⁵

Visitors find a monastery where religious spaces and workspaces sit side by side. Near the ubosot with its ceramic-decorated pediment and the wihan of Luang Pho Hin, an area is set aside for unloading donated bottles. Further on, baskets and bins are used for sorting, a press compacts the bottles into tight bales, and a large warehouse holds the materials awaiting processing. A sign recalls that fifteen bottles are needed for one robe.⁴

This coexistence is what makes the place unique. Nothing clearly separates the world of prayer from that of waste: the monks who study the Abhidhamma are also those who sort, and the faithful who come to make an offering often bring bags of bottles. The centre can be understood only within the monastery that houses it.

The volumes handled quickly reached a considerable scale. In September 2019, the temple estimated that it had diverted some forty tonnes of plastic from waste since the campaign began. By early 2020, at least eight hundred sets of robes had been produced, and the temple was receiving some fifteen tonnes of bottles each month.²

The activity did not stop after these years of intense media attention. Bottle donations continued in 2021 and beyond, driven by corporate campaigns and by the faithful. Wat Chak Daeng is now presented as a model of the contemporary temple, at once a religious centre and a complete waste-management centre, whose abbot, Phra Maha Pranom, continues to combine the study of doctrine with work on material.¹⁰