AIS Chief Consumer Business Officer Pratthana Leelapanang noted, "From being part of Thai football over the last year, we have seen the power of football fans in cheering on their favorite teams and players, as well as the commitment of every club and every athlete pouring everything into the competition. Today, when the world situation gives top priority to the environment, we have invited Thai football to take the next step to new standards of competition alongside caring for the environment. We are now expanding our program, "Thais say no to E-Waste", to football. Football fans can now have a part to play in disposing of electronic waste with AIS, which has set up E-Waste collection points at every club. From there it is taken to the correct recycling process according to Zero Landfill targets. Elements extracted from the recycling such as silver and gold can be used to make E-Waste winners medals, a historic first for Thailand. 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 of the Revo Thai League football competition.
"For this we are working with important partners, both the Thai League, which wants to make itself the Green Thai League for matches, athletes, clubs and fans, and WMS, the experts in waste disposal who have been working with our program "Thais Say No to E-Waste". They will be recycling electronic waste and using part of the resulting material in the process to manufacture winners medals. It is the starting point of upgrading Thai football to true sustainability with the participation of football fans and communities. AIS is fully behind Thai football in every aspect; not just the environmental mission, but also deploying Digital Services and exploiting the potential of smart 5G networks to upgrade the competition, in its goal of becoming the Green Thai League."
Acting Chief Executive Officer Thai League co., ltd. Korrawee Pritsananantakul commented, "While we have a key goal of upgrading Thai football to organize international-standard competition, we also want the Thai league to be the best in terms of prioritizing every kind of sustainability. In particular, we are prioritizing environmental conservation, which has become crucial at the global level, with the participation of clubs, footballers, fans, sponsors and partners from various sectors. Today is a great opportunity for ourselves and AIS to expand our cooperation from a partnership bringing the competition to Thai viewers, to a mission of raising awareness about the environmental issues of electronic waste. We are inviting football fans of Thai League 1 to dispose of their electronic waste at drop-off points located in all of the 16 stadiums which are home to clubs in the Revo Thai League. We will collect and recycle this E-Waste into the first winners' medals in Thailand containing materials extracted from recycled E-waste. Two of these medals will be presented to winning clubs competing in the 2021/22 Revo Thai League.
"We believe that this cooperation is an important start in giving different sectors a role in building the Green Thai League together. We believe that this highlights environmental issues for clubs, football fans and athletes. It will raise awareness in society to see the importance of addressing this issue together. We have expanded this commitment to other contexts of the competition, for the Thai League to be a Green Thai League, growing sustainably in every aspect."
Hiromitsu Takagi, Executive Director of Waste Management Siam Co., Ltd, added, "Our partnership with AIS to collect E-Waste for appropriate Zero Landfill recycling to international standards, is part of our mission to dispose of every waste category correctly, in the most environmentally-friendly way. We are delighted to be part of this cooperation between AIS and the Thai League which will showcase the benefits of recycling, as every part of waste can be given new value. As for winners' medals made from recycled E-Waste materials, in which the DOWA factory in Japan has sent silver and gold minerals obtained from recycling to be used as raw materials for the production of Medal of Honor with the same technology that produces medals used in world-class sporting events."
Thai football fans can join in and show their enthusiasm for their favorite teams fighting for winners' medals made from electronic waste, the two honored prizes in the 2021/22 Revo Thai League. The "Football Club E-Waste Challenge Award" will be presented to participating clubs collecting the most electronic waste for AIS, which includes mobile phones/tablets, chargers, earphones, power banks, mobile phone batteries and other electronic devices, before the end of the season which falls at the middle of this year. The "Football Club Green Ecosystem Award" will be presented to the club with the most outstanding performance on the environment and sustainable development.
Thai football fans can dispose of their electronic waste in bins provided at all 16 stadiums of clubs in the Thai League nationwide from today until May 31 2022 They can also dispose of E-Waste with their mail carriers and at post offices around the country for free, by boxing their E-Waste and writing on the box, "Electronic waste for disposal" along with the name of their favorite club, to be part of making the winners' medals.
Thai football fans can also follow the journey of these historic medals from electronic waste on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ais.sustainability
Source: AIS
