plastic-bottle collector reaps Bt1 million windfall

Published on March 09, 2005

It sounds like a fairytale: someone unwittingly tosses away a fortune and it lands in your lap. But that is exactly what happened to social welfare official Rujira Arunratsawat, 27.

She found a Bt1 million-winning bottle cap atop a discarded Oishi ready-to-drink green-tea bottle on Sunday, while collecting plastic bottles for recycling at a Bangkok weekend market.

She and her husband, Thanapat, yesterday arrived at the Oishi Group?s offices in Klong Toei to receive the prize money from president and CEO Tan Passakornatee.

Rujira said she went to Chatuchak Weekend Market to help her mother-in-law sell drinks and tissue paper in front of a public toilet and collect plastic bottles for recycling.

Later, she noticed the phrase ?Bt1 million? under one bottle cap. Her brother-in-law contacted the company, which said she could collect her money yesterday.

?I work for the social welfare office for Bt5,260 a month, and plastic bottles go for Bt13 a kilogram. I don?t know how many decades it would have taken me to get Bt1 million,? said Rujira. She said she would give some of the money to her mother-in-law, set some aside for her 1-year-old son?s education and build a house for her mother in Nakhon Phanom.

Tan congratulated the lucky woman and said Oishi had recently launched the Bt1-million campaign to thank its customers in Thailand. He urged people to look inside the cap before throwing their green-tea bottles away and contact the company immediately if they found ?Bt1 million? printed there. The prize would be awarded within 24 hours no matter where they are.

With the growing popularity of ready-to-drink green tea, Oishi products have proven a big hit, with sales of some 20 million bottles each month. The company projects sales of Bt3.5 billion for this year.

However, early last month a Thai man felt a burning sensation in his stomach, throat and mouth upon drinking a bottle of Oishi sugar-free green tea. The remainder of the tea was sent for testing, and results found it contained 16-per-cent hydrochloric acid.

The company insisted there was nothing wrong with its production process, but the report of possible contamination later saw Oishi?s share price tumble 1.7 per cent.

However, early last month a Thai man felt a burning sensation in his stomach, throat and mouth upon drinking a bottle of Oishi sugar-free green tea. The remainder of the tea was sent for testing, and results found it contained 16-per-cent hydrochloric acid.

###### I was going to give it a try until I read that part!!!!

  ###### I was going to give it a try until I read that part!!!!

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would be good to know about pecantage of that acid in other brands of gren tea. had heartburn several times after drinking sugar-free green tea - although am still alive

However, early last month a Thai man felt a burning sensation in his stomach, throat and mouth upon drinking a bottle of Oishi sugar-free green tea. The remainder of the tea was sent for testing, and results found it contained 16-per-cent hydrochloric acid.

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I bet that bottle is worth more than a million baht.