By Arnika – Toxics and Waste Programme, International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), and Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH) | December 2022
Electronic waste (e-waste) and its imports from abroad represent a big burden for the environment and human health in Thailand. This study is focused on mapping pollution by POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) in the vicinity of two facilities processing e-waste in Chachoengsao province, and one site affected by the disposal of sludge of unknown origin (Hat Nang Kaeo) in Prachinburi province.
By EARTH, Photo by Karnt Thassanaphak, December 2021
The world is facing a crisis of waste, and Thailand is no exception. Today, this country faces a growing quantity of wastes from various sources, including households/communities and industrial factories. In addition, plastic scraps, electronic scraps and wastes of other sorts are flowing from across the border into recycling factories. These waste importations occur through various avenues from illegal smugglings to exploitation of loopholes in the law.
2021 | Prof. Hideshige Takada, Dept. of Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences, and
Lee Bell, IPEN Mercury and POPs Policy Advisor
Plastic waste has become an unprecedented pollution issue around the globe. From visible plastic litter on land and in oceans to invisible micro-plastics in lakes, mountains, and rain, the planet is increasingly blanketed in the petrochemical remnants of plastic production. With petrochemical companies avoiding fossil fuel carbon liabilities by massively increasing plastic production, the amount of plastic waste generated is set to climb dramatically.
EcoWaste Coalition - JULY 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has already had negative effects on waste management, significantly contributing to increases in medical waste and household waste, and a substantial slowdown in recycling efforts. This upsurge in hazardous waste particularly endangers developing countries that are destinations for waste exports via the global waste trade.
IPEN & Arnika, June 2021
Plastics and food packaging contain chemical contaminants from manufacturing along with many additives to make them inflammable, more flexible, grease-resistant, or sterile, as well as other substances to create many other properties. Many of these additives are toxic and they leak from products during use and can be released during recycling and from recycled products.
This study focuses on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), whose releases are closely related to plastic wastes. The POPs include additives in the plastic as such, as well as unintentionally produced POPs (UPOPs) generated mostly by burning, incineration and/or other thermal treatment of plastics.
IPEN & NTN | April 2021
Chemicals are polluting oceans and waterways, not only endangering wildlife and those who rely on seafood for sustenance, but threatening the collapse of many fisheries. In combination with global warming, this is a catastrophe in the making. This report is the first to begin to detail the numerous ways and places in which chemical pollution and climate change is destabilizing this marine infrastructure and the world's fisheries. We still have time to stop the destruction, but as this report indicates, we will need to go beyond thinking only about how to control overfishing or manage pollutants in the fish we consume. Our survival, along with that of all other species, will depend on ensuring the health of the entire ocean, an objective we all must work on together to achieve.
(20 May 2023) On the eve of the new global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Paris, the Australian Environment Minister has decided to reopen plastic waste exports, after a five-year ban introduced by the previous federal government. The 2019 ban on waste exports came in response to China and Southeast Asian countries expose` on waste dumping. Countries that Australia had previously exported plastic waste to, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, struggle to manage plastic waste pollution, resulting in significant harm to vulnerable communities and sensitive marine environments.
21 March 2023
Environmental NGOs EARTH, ENLAWTHAI Foundation, and Greenpeace Thailand, released a press statement calling for accountability and transparency from government agencies, after the radioactive material “Cesium-137” went missing from a power plant in Si Maha Phot district, Prachin Buri province.
Seizures of polluter’s properties will continue, yet plaintiffs still received no compensation
EARTH REPORT 21 February 2023
The Court of Appeal held a hearing on the pollution dispute case between locals of Nampu subdistrict, Ratchaburi province as plaintiffs, against Wax Garbage Recycling Center Company and its owner.
EARTH REPORT 20 February 2023
Si Thep locals are calling for government agencies to take actions after a landmark court case failed to end impacts from a polluting landfill
Bangkok Post 19 February 2023 | APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
State agencies fighting smog are hamstrung by a lack of tougher laws
''People have a right to live in a clean environment and this is guaranteed under the constitution,'' said Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery-Thailand (EARTH Thailand).
PRESS RELEASE 6 February 2023
Bangkok, Thailand/Quezon City Philippines. In an unprecedented move, public interest organizations working to reduce human exposure to harmful chemicals pressed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Thailand to take immediate action to stop the unlawful production and trade of cosmetics laden with mercury.
EARTH Statement at the Science Policy Panel OEWG Meeting | 03 February 2023
"The work of the Science Policy Panel should reflect democratization of science that aims to protect local communities by ensuring public participation and community right-to-know."
EARTH REPORT 01 February 2023
Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH Thailand) said the plan to remove the eastern industrial province of Rayong from Thailand’s pollution control zone is premature ill-conceived and premature.
Thai PBS World 27 January 2023
Electronic waste (e-waste) and its imports from abroad represent a big burden for the environment and human health. In Thailand, contaminated duck eggs found near recycling plants.
EARTH REPORT 09 January 2023
Citizens of Moo 10 village, Sra Si Liam subdistrict, Phanat Nikhom district, Chonburi province, eastern region of Thailand, spoke to oppose the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for Asia Metal PCL’s galvanization project, at its second public hearing.
Bangkok Post 24 December 2022
One of Thailand's buzzwords of 2022 has been "BCG" -- the acronym used for the Bio-Circular-Green Economic Model.
BCG has become one of the guiding principles of Thailand's national development, with roots leading back to the Thailand 4.0 policy conceptualised by the governments of General Prayut Chan-o-cha.
PRESS RELEASE: EARTH & ARNIKA 15 December 2022
BANGKOK/PRAGUE: Recently published analysis confirmed that communities in the Chachoengsao province, Thailand, face severe food chain contamination with some of the world's most toxic chemicals caused by improper electronic waste processing. Samples of analyzed soil, sediments, and duck eggs, common food rich in nutrients, contained record levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The dioxin level in duck eggs from a village near an e-waste recycling factory in Khao Hin Son is the 10th highest ever measured level in poultry eggs in Asia and the 2nd highest level measured in eggs from Thailand.
