SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out BangkokSC Grand Jirarot

SC GRAND is saving the world with fashion items made of textile waste

Meet Jirarot Pojanavaraphan, the brain behind SC GRAND, one of the biggest textile recycling hubs in Southeast Asia

Time Out Bangkok in partnership with SC Grand
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Blame sci-fi Hollywood blockbusters for giving people the idea that the apocalypse will come courtesy of a large asteroid or a monstrous creature. If you look beyond these disaster movies and acknowledge alarming environmental issues such as climate change, then you’d probably realize that humans could just be responsible for bringing about the end of the world—just by buying a cool pair of jeans or a cute little top.

The fashion industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, second only to the petroleum industry. Every process that goes into producing one piece of cloth, from spinning to fabric-dyeing to weaving, results in tremendous amounts of environmental waste. Even washing our clothes result in the release of microplastics and pollutants that eventually end up in the ocean. (According to a 2018 report by the United Nation World Water Development, clean water will be a scarcity by 2050, affecting six billion people in the world.)

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

“Changemakers from global fashion brands are embracing sustainable textiles as one solution to waste management,” says Jirarot Pojanavaraphan, managing director of textile recycling company SC GRAND (Saeng Charoen Grand Co., Ltd). He goes on to point out that sustainability and zero-waste fashion have become a top priority for high-street fashion brands like H&M and Zara, which have launched ambitious goals to help reduce landfill waste.

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

Among local Thai brands, however, similar eco-friendly approaches are still little embraced, and customer awareness regarding the problem is still in the nascent stage. But SC GRAND is hoping to change all these by trailblazing innovative processes in Thailand’s sustainable fashion scene.

“The idea of reusing and upcycling has long been the core DNA of SC GRAND since its inception over 50 years ago,” Jirarot relates. SC GRAND originally started out as a recycling factory, selling textile waste to domestic and international markets. It soon turned into a factory producing recycled yarn made from compiled textile waste. Under the steering of Jirarot, a third-generation successor, SC GRAND is looking to become one of the most prominent textile recycling hubs in Southeast Asia by embracing the philosophy of circular economy and close-loop fashion system.

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

By producing waste-free recycled yarn and forgoing chemical-heavy processes like dyeing, SC GRAND is on a mission, not just to produce guilt-free fabric, but to boost public awareness on the devastating impacts that traditional textile production has on the environment.

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

The company is leveraging proven technology and years of experience in the recycling industry to produce fabric that’s right for the market—but it’s no walk in the park. Since it doesn’t dye its yarn (the process that would have caused detrimental effects to the environment), SC GRAND faces the difficulty of producing desired color blends in textiles, and has to carefully sort and vary the shades from batch to batch. Likewise, the inconsistency of the fibers in textile waste poses a challenge when trying to achieve balance composition in a product.

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

But, so far, their efforts have impressed more than a few local brands. The company is currently collaborating with cutting-edge labels such as Selvedgework and Khaki Bros to produce T-shirts, polo shirts and denim jackets made from recycled yarn. By the end of the year, SC GRAND will also team up with some of the most popular Thai womenswear brands to create earth-friendly dresses and gowns. The company also plans launch its own clothing brand called CIRCULAROEM, which maximizes the possibilities of the recycled materials it produces.

SC Grand Jirarot
Tanisorn Vongsoontorn/Time Out Bangkok

SC GRAND has proven it has become the purveyor in circular fashion in Thailand and Southeast Asia and has made sustainable fashion accessible to the market. However, the eco-conscious brand wouldn’t stop just yet as it boasts many new exciting projects in the pipeline. “You will be hearing a lot more from us”, Jirarot promises.

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