KHON KAEN — “The World Conservation Broom Group”, led by Boonsee Srikul, 67 years old, has produced environmentally-friendly brooms, which are currently selling very well. They welcome those interested in learning how to produce brooms from recycled plastic.
Their headquarters is located at 150 Moo 7, Huai Sai Village, Ban Dong Subdistrict, Ubonrat District, Khon Kaen Province.
Mr. Boonsee said that he used to work as an electricity official, but after retiring, he began assisting at the Ban Dong Subdistrict Administrative Organization. He initiated a recycling project to increase income from plastic waste, especially PET bottles. He successfully created several brooms through trial and error and gained a great understanding of the process.
It started with collecting a large quantity of 1.5-liter plastic bottles. Then, cut off the bottoms of the bottles, cleaned them, and cut them into strips. These strips are woven into a mold, boiled, and then shaped and decorated. After counting the strips, snake tail patterns are woven and attached to handles.
Currently, plastic broom-making has become more efficient, with increased demand. The first batch was sold at 60 baht per handle. Residents interested in eco-friendly brooms formed a group of 18 people to produce and sell brooms. They sell the handles for 100 baht each and continue collaborating locally and online.
Nowadays, they are struggling to meet customer demands because group members need to tend to their farms. Therefore, they are speeding up production to fulfill an additional order of 100 handles.
Most customers are schools, temples, and government offices. Additionally, local NGOs bring community members and students to learn broom-making, creating livelihoods and skills for themselves and their families.
The group “World Conservation Broom” provides educational tools such as plastic straw makers and frame templates for citizens interested in learning. Currently, they use steel wires to shape plastic straws into templates. Once the plastic straws are shaped, they are boiled for 5 minutes to soften and conform to the template, then trimmed to equal lengths using scissors.
They are bundled into groups of 20, totaling 400 straws. These are then woven into snake tail patterns to complete broom handles. Hand drills are used to create holes, screws, and wire are used to attach the plastic straws tightly to the broom handles. Each broom is sold for 100 baht.
The group has only four members making broom handles. They distribute the earnings, giving each member between 6,000-8,000 baht per month in increased income. During this period, they still need to increase production to fulfill an additional order of 100 broom handles from customers.
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