Thai sports league to make medals from e-waste

The Football Association of Thailand will score a green goal by partnering with a local telecoms company and waste management firm to make medals from electronic waste. The innovation is part of their partnership in an e-waste sustainability and recycling program.

“The medals have been designed meticulously, tastefully and beautifully, and produced by a manufacturing process which cares for the environment at every step. They will be honored prizes in the 2021/22 season,” said Korrawee Pritsananantakul, Acting Chief Executive at the Thai League.

The league is teaming up with telecoms provider Advanced Info Service (AIS) and Waste Management Siam Co., in the recycling program. They have launched a campaign called “Thais Say No to E-Waste” in which they ask people to dispose of their electronic waste by giving it to AIS for recycling.

Pratthana Leelapanang, Chief Consumer Business Officer at AIS, added that the e-waste would go through a recycling process so that the company can meet its zero landfill target. Some of the waste contains silver and gold, among other elements, and the company would use those precious metals to forge the athletes’ medals.

Football is enormously popular in the Kingdom. Thais love their local teams but also avidly follow the English Premier League and other European leagues.

“With the world focused on the environment, we invited Thai football to take the next step towards new standards in caring for the environment,” Pratthana said. Football fans can now play a part in disposing of e-waste with AIS, which has set up e-waste collection points at every club.”

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