Since 2007, Tzu Chi Foundation puts into practice a recycling program that is directly linked to its world-renowned disaster relief efforts, known as "Trash into Gold"--a massive effort in collecting PET bottles and converting them into blankets, scarves, shirts, and other textile-based items, used for disaster response and humanitarian aid. Over 60,000 volunteers of the organization's 5,642 recycling centers collect, clean, and prepare plastic bottles and transport them to partnering factories, which process the plastic bottles and convert them into textiles, used to make the aforementioned items. Tzu Chi Foundation has since distributed over 800,000 blankets in disaster relief operations in over 30 countries worldwide.

As a measurement of the amount of PET bottles recycled, Tzu Chi Foundation has broken down each item produced in terms of the number of PET bottles to produce it; 1 blanket uses 70 PET bottles, 1 shirt uses 15 PET bottles, 1 scarf uses 7 PET bottles, and so on. Roughly 2,000 tons of PET bottles have been recycled each year from this program. Each blanket produced from recycled bottles is equivalent to reducing 1.7 kg of CO2 emissions, saving 35.4 milliliters of oil and 6 liters of water. On average, 150,000 blankets are manufactured every day.

Tzu Chi Foundation intends to expand this program into the Marshall Islands, American Samoa, and Hawaii, working with local schools, local community leaders, and local volunteers to collect PET bottles in these islands.