BY KELLY TEY
Malaysian Green Technology Corporation group chairman Tan Sri Peter Chin (left) and Ong taking a closer look at a shirt made out of recycled plastic bottles. — P. NATHAN/ The Star
OSK PROPERTY has taken its first step toward greener measures.
The property developer engaged GreenTech Malaysia Alliances and Kloth Lifestyle to produce 1,200 pieces of its company uniform using recycled plastic bottles for more than 500 staff.
OSK Property chief executive officer Ong Ghee Bin said this initiative was part of the company’s branding exercise following its merger with the property arm of PJD Group.
“Did you realise that plastic bottles can be recycled and made into T-shirts? This was once an abstract idea.
“We’re fortunate to have GreenTech and Kloth Lifestyle to look into producing our uniforms, and we’re proud to be part of an initiative to develop sustainable wear,” he added, saying that the T-shirts will now serve as OSK Property’s official uniform.
Malaysian Green Technology Alliance chief executive officer Woon Foo Wen lauded the property developer for looking into sustainable systems for its rebranding activities.
“In our short interaction, OSK Property has chosen to take action.
“To me, this is very positive as they not only believe in these sustainable measures, but have actually set out to do something about it.”
Woon also announced the company as the first property development company in the country to receive a partnership programme certificate from the GreenTech Malaysia Alliance for its waste management initiative.
Kloth Lifestyle director Nik Suzila Nik Hassan said the costs involved in producing recyclable clothing materials should be more costly by at least 10% to 15%.
“However, in Malaysia, by virtue of Kloth Malaysia, which is owned together by our equity holder, Waste2Wear, we are able to get special pricing and direct deals, hence we’re able to match the pricing for Malaysian consumers.
“The pricing is very competitive,” she explained, adding that the bottles are collected from the world over, crushed and sent to China to be further processed into workable fabric.
Nik Suzila said each of the T-shirts produced for OSK Property is made with eight and half 500ml mineral bottles.
It is 40% recycled polyester and 60% organic cotton.
“We can only use PET bottles, and perhaps with a mix of high-density polyethylene (HDPE); you can’t use any other plastic types,” she pointed out.
Ong noted that the best way of conserving the environment is through recycling and by adopting the initiative, OSK Property has prevented 10,000 plastic bottles from going to the landfills.
“We’ve made our employees our ambassadors and we felt it was a good idea to start this sustainable journey with them, before we expand our scope to involve our business associates, customers and stakeholders.
“We hope our participation in the transformation movement with GreenTech and Kloth Lifestyle will encourage more organisations to come forward and support similar initiatives,” shared Ong.
He also expressed hope that with the collective adoption of green technology, rubbish could be reduced and there would be a positive impact to the environment.
“Moving forward, we also aspire to adopt more green technology into our operations as well as our company development,” he concluded.
