Bangkok temple develops hygienic face mask from recycled plastics

During the nationwide closure of temples and festivities during the Songkran holiday this week, some are taking the opportunity to improve hygienic practices. To help protect members of the temple and the community from contracting Coronavirus, the Abbot from Chak Daeng temple, on the banks of the Chao Phraya just south of Bangkok, has been busy crafting recycled plastics into face masks.

The Chak Daeng temple has developed a method of using recycled plastics donated from the community and retrieved from Bangkok’s Chao Phraya river to make a fabric which they use for robes and more recently, into hygienic face masks.

Monks crush the plastic and shred it into small flakes allowing the material to be converted into polyester and spun into yarn and woven into robes in a beautiful polyblend of traditional and modern problem solving. With some alterations, the recycled plastics can be used to make face masks to help people stay safe this year.

Adding an extra microbial protection layer sewn into the inner lining, the abbot hopes it will shield users from the virus. As an added measure, Chak Daeng temples talisman master writes a Buddhist prayer, “To know the problem is to find a way to end the suffering.”

SOURCES: The ASEAN Post | PR Department