KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA—Sunway Hotels & Resorts, the hospitality division of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group, has partnered with Kloth Cares, a Malaysian social entrepreneurship movement dedicated to keep fabrics out of landfills through rethinking, reusing, reducing, repurposing and recycling unwanted fabrics.
The partnership involves Sunway Hotels & Resorts located in Kuala Lumpur, namely Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa, Sunway Pyramid Hotel, Sunway Clio Hotel, Sunway Putra Hotel and Sunway Velocity Hotel where a permanent Kloth Cares bin were placed in the respective hotels for its employees to recycle their used linen, clothes and soft toys which are then collected on a monthly basis by Kloth Cares. The hotels also recycle their used and discarded linen such as towels, bed sheets and curtains, and has since collectively recycled close to 10,000 kg since May 2019.
“At Sunway Hotels & Resorts, sustainability is an integral component in our business framework as we continually expand our presence and networks,” said Farizal B. Jaafar, Sunway Hotels & Resorts’ Group Director of Brand Marketing & Communications. “Our collaboration with Kloth Cares is another step towards our goal for a circular economy. We anticipate to recycle approximately 15,000 kg of fabric annually from our hotels.”
To create awareness on repurposing used fabrics and the function of the Kloth Cares bin, an inter-department challenge was organized in all Sunway Hotels & Resorts with “Bin It To Win It”. Through the challenge, a total of 2,500 kg of textiles and other wearable products were collected in one week and items were donated to Kloth Cares; while other Sunway Hotels & Resorts in Penang, Cambodia and Vietnam donated their respective collections directly to selected charity houses. The quarterly challenge also served as a platform to continually educate hotel guests and employees on keeping fabric out of landfills by recycling. The hotels are also working with local artists, who utilized the discarded linen as canvases for their artworks.
Textile Waste Decomposes, Produces Methane
According to Kloth Cares, it is estimated that Malaysians produce up to 2,000 tons of textile wastes and other wearable products daily. An old t-shirt or a pair of jeans that is thrown away makes up of 5 percent of solid waste that ends up in landfills, if not recycled. As textile waste decomposes, it releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas that is a significant contributor to global warming.
The items collected by Kloth Cares are sorted, those in favorable conditions are then redistributed to bundle shops and to identified communities in need; while suitable and sizeable fabrics are cut to make industrial cleaning cloth and the unwanted fabrics are reengineered to fuel cement kiln. “We are excited to have Sunway Hotels & Resorts as a partner and the first hospitality group in Malaysia to be a part of this movement,” said Nik Suzila Hassan, Co-Founder of Kloth Malaysia. “This movement is an effort where people from all walks of life are able to participate in and we hope that through this collaboration, others will be more aware of their actions before throwing away their unused fabrics and are also encouraged to recycle.”
This initiative by Sunway Hotels & Resorts is part of the #sunwayforgood movement, which is Sunway’s commitment towards a sustainable environment, economy and society. Committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Sunway Hotels & Resorts continues to align its business, operating strategies and corporate culture with sustainable practices and solutions in line with the SDG agenda. All Sunway Hotels & Resorts are fully committed and have adopted SDG2 that focuses on Zero Hunger and SDG12 on Responsible Consumption and Production; fostering a better future for the communities in which Sunway builds, serves and lives.
Sunway Hotels & Resorts’ ongoing #ZeroFoodWastage program is an initiative where surplus food is collected daily from its food and beverage establishments to feed the urban poor. The Hospitality Group’s Soapful project repurposes used soap bars from all its hotels and thereafter distributed to selected beneficiaries for their personal use and to be sold as part of their respective social enterprise programs at charity sales, community markets and other social platforms. The Group also partners with FatHopes Energy for the recycling and conversion of the hotels’ used cooking oil into biodiesel and other sustainable initiatives include turning food waste into compost, the no-straw campaign and reducing single-use plastic. For more details about Sunway Group’s mission to drive the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development agenda, visit http://www.sunwayforgood.com.
