Govt must act to stop waste piling up

Thailand aspires to become a global kitchen; a top supplier of food to the rest of the world. It also aspires to become a tourism, hospitality, aviation and wellness hub for the region — if not the world — to mention just some government objectives.

There is another aspiration which is not mentioned in any promotional brochures — that it wants to become the world’s biggest dump site for electronic and plastic trash.

So imported industrial waste is welcome in Thailand just like the way we embrace tourists and criminals in the guise of tourists who arrive for short visits without the need of a visa.

China stands out as the country which has taken advantage of this misguided, misconceived and blind policy of allowing electronic trash and plastic trash to be imported into Thailand since China itself banned similar imports into its soil last year.

In the last year alone, as many as 100,000 tonnes of mostly electronic trash were shipped in containers into Thailand, mostly through Laem Chabang deep-sea port, for separation and recycling at local factories — several of them run by Chinese businessmen — in the eastern region or the Eastern Economic Corridor which is now being touted by the government as the new economic powerhouse that will propel Thailand into a new era of prosperity.

But the 100,000 tonnes of Chinese industrial trash may be just a very conservative estimate judging by the recent finding that one recycling plant in Samut Prakan, which was raided by police and officials from the Industrial Works Department, had a permit to import about 20,000 tonnes of plastic scraps into the country for recycling.

Why are industrial waste and electronic trash, in particular, allowed to be imported while the country itself is incapable of properly disposing of the waste that is generated domestically?

According to data from the Industrial Works Department, domestic industrial waste over the past five years has soared to 16 million tonnes, including 2.8 million tonnes of hazardous trash or 7.48% with the rest being non-hazardous.

But only 10% of this mountain of trash has been disposed of through incineration or landfill.

So what has happened to the remaining 90%?

It is left exposed to sunshine and rain in the open yards of recycling plants, in filledup landfills or simply dumped illegally in any open and un-barricaded space.

The last few weeks saw police and officials from the Industrial Works and Pollution Control departments raid several recycling plants in Chachoengsao, Samut Prakan and Pathum Thani.

Irregularities were found in many of the recycling plants.

One was found to have a permit for a recycling facility in Bang Phli district of Samut Prakan, but the actual plant was built in Chachoengsao province.

Others falsely declared electronic trash as plastic trash to elude tighter controls and the requirement for a treatment facility to contain hazardous substances which it allowed to leak into the environment.

Those which were found to be operating without a licence were shut down. But this belated tough action does not address the problem at its root cause as far as imported industrial waste is concerned.

The government’s open-arms policy to imported industrial waste has spawned a string of recycling plants opened with Chinese investment and run by Chinese owners.

My question to the government, the Industrial Works Department which granted the licenses and other governmental agencies which promote foreign investment is: What benefits will Thailand gain from this misguided policy? How much will the recycling plants contribute to our economy? How many jobs will they create?

But I have my answer. The imported trash does not benefit the country or the people at all.

It is a burden, a threat to our environment and the health of the people living near the dumping grounds or recycling facilities.

And the one effective way to address this problem is to ban its import for good and immediately, which will make life easier for customs officials.

There is more than enough domestically generated industrial trash to be disposed of by our recycling facilities.

If new permits are to be granted for new recycling plants, the Industrial Works Department must make sure they must only recycle locally-generated waste.

Touching on the trash issue last week, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said his government has always paid attention to the issue and he had instructed agencies concerned to address the problem.

But that is not enough. To begin with, imports of industrial waste for recycling, or whatever reason, must stop now for good.

Then focus should be directed to addressing home-made industrial waste and garbage in general, plastic in particular, which has increasingly become a real threat not just to us, but to the world in general.

Act now Mr prime minister and I am sure you will win support from many people.

The one effective way to address this problem is to ban its import for good and immediately.