Furnishings made out of discarded wood chips are displayed at the Thailand International Furniture Fair 2009. The furniture maker Dee Sawat Industries has found creative ways to use waste wood to make new products under a government-backed programme.)

During tough economic times, businesses need to focus on increasing revenue at minimum cost and through maximum use of the materials and resources on hand. Doing so requires innovation or, in some cases, considerable investment.

But a new programme called "Turn Garbage into Gold" could make it possible to turn waste into money at very low cost, according to the Industrial Technology Assistance Programme (iTAP).

The idea is to turn unused raw materials that businesses normally throw away into something useful at an economical cost of development.

As a unit of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), iTAP provides technical and financial support to small and medium-sized operators to turn waste into high-value products.

The agency has worked with the Thai Furniture Industries Association (TFA), iTap and Dr Singh Intrachooto, from the Faculty of Architecture at Kasetsart University, who has spent years advocating creative transformation of waste materials through arts and design. The project is moving into a second phase and has proved profitable for some business operators.

The first phase, which began in mid-2008, involved three companies selected for trial ventures.

They were Dee Sawat Industries, which manufactures wooden furniture using wood chips; Grand Ness, a curtain and tools manufacturer with a lot of thread waste; and Siam Global, an industrial product maker that creates much scrap. "We chose them as they have a lot of waste from their production processes," Dr Singh said.

He added the companies all sold off their waste cheaply or threw it away when it started to occupy a large space.

The iTAP taught them to make wooden furniture from wood chips, outdoor furniture from scrap and popular lamps from wasted threads.

"All of the products were shown at the Thailand International Furniture Fair 2009 (TIFF), our first appearance to the public and the market."

Pisut Tongrapeeporn, plant manager of Grand Ness, said the company jumped at the opportunity to join the project since it has a lot of leftover thread.

"We are an original equipment manufacturer, so we don't stock products. We produce according to customer orders. But we stock threads as our raw materials, and sometimes there are a lot left over if certain materials are not popular in the market," he said.

"We had a monthly average of 60 kilogrammes of unused thread that cost us about 60,000 baht. We would rather utilise this somehow."

In addition, during an economic slump when orders are down, its workers are left with a lot of free time.

"This project increased hours for our workers and gave them more skill and knowledge. If the new product goes over well, it may give us a new business line," Mr Pisut said.

More than 20 Grand Ness lamps have been sold to local and international customers since TIFF at 5,000 baht each, a profit of up to 50%.

"We have no marketing skill for houseware products as it is not our field, but Dr Singh said he would help us develop products and market them," he said.

Dr Singh is in the process of selecting three new companies for its second phase. The third phase of the project, due to start by the end of the year, will have 10 participants and is currently open for application.