WREATHS FOR A GOOD CAUSE
To prevent pollution caused by funeral bouquets, one company is adopting a new practice of sending recycled paper garlands and donating books
Funeral wreaths are a common way to pay our final respect to the deceased. However, at the end of the funeral, wreaths turn into a large pile of garbage which is harmful to the environment as they are made up of foam and plastic. Each year, according to the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion (DEQP), more than 128,000 wreaths are left at 456 temples across Bangkok. The DEQP pointed out that trash piles from wreaths cause odour pollution and when burned cause air pollution. Therefore, the DEQP encourages people to offer other items such as trees, fans, blankets and kitchen utensils to the dead instead of flower wreaths.
Three founders of a funeral wreath company, Pun Kan Di Book Wreath (Sharing Good Deeds) — Kaimuk Pantaeng, Tachnondh Jarupatchanee and Chuenkamon Sreesompoch — are aware of the environmental issues caused by flower wreaths. They started their company last year by launching “book wreath”, which aims to reduce the environmental effects of wreaths by providing knowledge to people. Kaimuk revealed that the idea of book wreaths came while she was working with the Publishers and Booksellers Association of Thailand. At that time, she was working on a project called “Nangsue Trongjai”, which helps readers get their hands on books they want. In this project, recipients can inform donators what type of books they want and the association will source them.
At Pun Kan Di, customers can purchase two kinds of wreaths — for 1,000 baht with one book donation or 2,000 baht with three book donations. After making the purchase, a recycled-paper wreath in the shape of a large beautiful book will be delivered to the funeral. People at the funeral will see the book wreath or a mock-up book with beautiful flower designs that will include the name of the purchaser(s) and the organisation to which Pun Kan Di will donate books.
“A wreath is a representation of the purchaser to pay respect to the deceased. However, books do not go with the deceased. We will collect money until we can purchase 100 books for an organisation such as a school, hospital, prison, temple or a community. After we deliver books to an organisation, we will send the purchasers a link about the donation details. We have already donated 100 books to the Foundation for Rural Youth and are now collecting money for the Education Centre for Sick Children at Phramongkutklao Hospital and the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled. The representatives of these three organisations chose books from a list that we provided. They also can tell us what kind of books they want as well,” explained Kaimuk.
Tachnondh explained that they decide to purchase new books for each organisation because they learned that used book donations did not work.
“The Mirror Foundation has reported that 80% of the second-hand books can not be used. Most of them are too old or not up to date or not appropriate for young readers. After each donation, these used books become garbage and a burden,” explained Tachnondh.
“We let people at an organisation choose the books because to promote reading, we must let people read what they want. This way, readers will enjoy reading and develop their habit further.
If we force children to read textbooks instead of letting them read comics or children books, it may turn them against reading,” added Chuenkamon.
The trio — Kaimuk, Tachnondh and Chuenkamon — became friends and partners after they met at several volunteer activities.
Pun Kan Di Book Wreath was established because they wanted to run a business with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
“I was inspired by many successful companies with CSR initiatives in the US and the UK. For instance, a Los Angeles-based company, Toms Shoes has a signature charity programme titled ‘One For One.’ When a customer purchases a pair of shoes, one pair will be donated to an impoverished child.
Their programme is successful in terms of sales and it has become a fashion trend. Hence, we wanted to launch a company with a CSR initiative that can survive in the business world,” said Tachnondh.
While Chuenkamon runs On-Art Book Publishing, Kaimuk is a public relations executive for many book fairs. Meanwhile. Tachnondh is better known as DJ Fiat at Green Wave 106.5.
The trio became interested in book wreaths because they are avid readers and believe it can improve people’s abilities. Chuenkamon commented that reading is a basic skill to enable learning which will lead to better writing and communion skills.
“When we listen to others, their messages include their interpretations. If we read, we will analyse content and come up with our own interpretations. Besides gaining knowledge, reading inspires our imagination. I like to read quotes and good quotes should be something that readers can relate to, understand and analyse,” explained Tachnondh.
“We do not work on alternative wreaths because knowledge helps to develop people to become lifelong learners. Readers can develop their skills, pursue careers and eventually support themselves, said Kaimuk.
To ensure that their book donations are useful, the trio carefully chooses the recipient organisations. They visit the organisations and examine their libraries before making decisions.
“We survey their bookshelves and libraries to see how each organisation manages its stock of books. Every organisation that we have worked with has so far made the most out of the books they have received. They do not leave books unused. In the future, we may have a volunteer librarian establish a library system, so people in an organisation can learn how to manage donated books,” Kaimuk.
Most books donated to their two selected organisations, Foundation for Rural Youth and Education Centre for Sick Children at Phramongkutklao Hospital, have been children books because the foundation and the centre aim to educate children. However, the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled is a different matter. Tachnondh who usually reads books for the visually impaired said people send many dharma books to the library but they are not what the visually impaired want.
To promote reading, we must let people read what they want
“They want professional development books such as social marketing. They also want poetry books, computer books, law books, English language books and children books,” said Tachnondh.
As a new business, the founders intend to continue to improve many aspects. They also hope many people will benefit from their products.
“We will make it as friendly an environment as possible. We are learning about soymilk ink and may use it in the future. We have also learned from customers’ comments and gradually improved our product,” said Chuenkamon.
“To protect the product from rain and damage during delivery, we cover the wreath with a reusable dialysis bag which is produced from a hospital in Yasothon province. In the future, we will find an inmate who is an artist to design our wreaths, so he/she will earn income from it. We saw the Art for Cancer project in which cancer patients created artworks. We will use the artworks of those cancer patients for our wreaths and share the income with them,” said Kaimuk.