News

Shangri-La plans to upcycle hotel linen into reusable face masks

6 Jul 2020 by Seher Asaf
Students at Dehigahalanda School, Hambantota, Sri Lanka receive masks through the L4LFM programme

Shangri-La, in partnership with hygiene solutions provider Diversey, says it’s donating used linen to non-governmental organisations which will then be upcycled into face masks for communities in need across 12 cities in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka.

The hotel group says it has donated 12,500kg of used linen to local non-governmental organisations to be repurposed into reusable face masks as part of the For Life Face Masks (L4LFM) partnership.

Shangri-La says its donating to local NGOs in Colombo, Hambantota, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu, Surabaya, Jakarta, Cebu, Manila, Singapore, Bangkok and Yangon. In some cities such as Yangon, Manila, Johor Bahru, Jakarta, Surabaya and Bangkok.  The hotel group says the linen will be turned into about half-a-million face masks which will then be given to local communities in need.

Employees at Shangri-La's Rasa Ria Resort & Spa, Kota Kinabalu preparing the linen for their local NGO's (1)

“The upcycling of clean, used linen into face masks also provides Shangri-La a meaningful way to help reduce environmental wastage. If new linen was produced to manufacture this quantity of fabric masks, it would have incurred 60 million litres of water (the equivalent of 23 Olympic-size swimming pools) and a carbon footprint of 150 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 63,000 litres of petrol being combusted,” reads a statement from Shangri-La.

In Bangkok, Thailand, the Group and Diversey have teamed up with Cedar Learning Centre where local community members will upcycle “the clean but used” bedsheets, duvet covers and pillowcases into face masks and distribute them to refugees and asylum seekers in the city, says Shangri-La.

Volunteers at Why Loving Care in Penang will create and distribute the masks to vulnerable children in local schools and orphanages, while in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, with the help of the Kechara Soup Kitchen, disadvantaged women will receive an additional source of income from the sewing of face masks which will be distributed among poor families and the homeless, added the hotel group.

shangri-la.com

Loading comments...

Search Flight

See a whole year of Reward Seat Availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Business Traveller March 2024 edition
Be up-to-date
Magazine Subscription
To see our latest subscription offers for Business Traveller editions worldwide, click on the Subscribe & Save link below
Polls