Thailand’s government has announced that it will ban all imports of plastics waste from 2021, having temporarily suspended imports in June 2018 – see Plasteurope.com of 13.07.2018. It noted that it will take two years before current import licences expire and the policy can be implemented without exception.

Since China banned plastics scrap imports from the beginning of 2018, Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations have become prime destinations for shipments of plastics and electronic waste from developed countries. However, the lack of recycling capacity that already has the country struggling to cope with its domestic waste means that much of the imported waste has been dumped in landfills and oceans.

Rintawat Sombutsiri, director of industrial waste management in the Department of Industrial Works, added that its Pollution Control Department will also need two years to set up a system for collecting such household waste.

Growing awareness in Thailand on the extent of plastics pollution is now spurring action. For example, in a pilot project in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen, 22 markets and department stores are giving customers free cloth bags in order to reduce their use of plastic bags and styrofoam containers. The provincial government plans to extend the project to all of its 22 districts in the near future.

In addition, the Khon Kaen municipal government has pledged to move away from landfills and build a waste-to-energy power plant. The facility will be able to process up to 600 t of waste every day and produce 6 MW of power. A timescale for the project was not disclosed.