Phuket has joined Upcycling Oceans, a global initiative launched by Ecoalf Foundation and adopted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. As part of the campaign, divers earn discounts on dive trips in return for helping protect Thailand’s marine ecosystem by harvesting litter from the ocean.
Currently, project participants include operators and dive sites spread along the Kingdom’s east coast.
The campaign officially kicked off in Thailand on 1 September 2017 on Koh Samed. Within only five hours, 300 local volunteers and 100 divers collected around 700 kg of plastic waste, ranging from bottles to fishing nets that had washed up on beaches. This year, the initiative will spread to the island of Tao in the Gulf of Siam.
Plastic debris collected from the ocean is recycled into thread to make fabrics and accessories.