Thailand feeling effects of China’s ewaste ban
Thailand is the new dumping ground for the world’s hightech trash, police say. Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Juarawee Kittisilpa, of Reuters, report from Bangkok.
THAILAND is a new dumping ground for scrap electronics from around the world, police and environmentalists say, the latest country to feel the effect of China’s crackdown on imports of hightech rubbish.
Police at Laem Chabang port, south of Bangkok, last week displayed seven shipping containers each packed with about 22 tonnes of discarded electronics, including crushed game consoles, computer boards and bags of scrap materials.
Electronic refuse, or ewaste, was turning up from Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, some of it imported by companies without the required permits, police said.
‘‘This . . . shows that electronic waste from every corner of the world is flowing into Thailand,’’ Deputy Police Chief Pol Gen Wirachai Songmetta said as he showed media the containers.
While ‘‘ewaste’’ — defined as any device with an electric cord or battery — can be ‘‘mined’’ for valuable metals such as gold, silver and copper, it can include hazardous material such as lead, mercury and cadmium.
Police said they filed charges against three recycling and waste processing companies in Thailand.
Anyone found guilty could be jailed for up to 10 years.
‘‘The companies that we have filed charges against don’t have a quota to import even a single tonne of electronic waste,’’ Wirachai said.
China imposed a ban on overseas rubbish last year, telling the World Trade Organisation that it would stop accepting imports of 24 types of foreign waste, leading some to fear that the waste could end up in neighbouring countries.
The ban has upended the world’s wastehandling supply chain and caused massive pileups of rubbish from Asia to Europe, as exporters struggled to find new buyers for it.
According to estimates in China’s state media last year, more than 70% of the world’s 500 million tonnes of electronic waste entered China in 2016.
Environmentalists say waste once destined for China is being rerouted to Southeast Asia, and new laws are needed or existing laws better enforced to prevent illegal imports.
‘‘Especially after China’s ban, Thailand could become one of the biggest dumping grounds for ewaste,’’ Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand, said.
In 1997, Thailand ratified the Basel Convention, which aims to control transboundary movements of hazardous waste. But the convention does not completely prohibit these exports from more developed to less developed countries.
‘‘The Basel Convention cannot prevent what is happening in Thailand because it has its limitations,’’ Penchon said in calling for an amendment that would ban these shipments.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha vowed last week to step up nationwide inspections as part of a plan to combat illegal electronic waste.
But environmentalists say they have not seen the details of how it will work.
‘‘It isn’t clear how he will do this,’’ Penchom said.