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.
IPEN | September 2020
Toxic chemicals of concern that are widespread in common plastic products can hinder the momentum for a circular economy. A new report, coordinated by the Barcelona-based(1) Regional Activity Centre for Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP/RAC), serving both the Stockholm Convention and the Barcelona Convention, has been produced in collaboration with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) in order to shine a light on extensive evidence of toxic chemical components in plastics that can harm human and environmental health and impede a safe circular economy.
March 2020
The condition of Thailand's natural and social environment entered a crisis in 1990s, which resulted in major amendments to national laws concerning environment and pollution control in 1992.
Journal of Public Health Policy, March 2020 | Achyut Aryal and Craig Morley
Asbestos is a primary cause of cancer worldwide. Global estimates indicate workplace exposure of 125 million people and about 255,000 deaths each year. Of the approximately 300 million metric tonnes of asbestos ever produced worldwide, most will become waste and disposed of in landfills. The recycling and transforming asbestos fibre into a non-harmful product offer a sustainable solution, but a global commitment remains elusive. Urgent action is needed.
IPEN & EARTH, October 2019
On 30 September 2019, EARTH visited Benjakitti Park and Lumphini Park located in Bangkok City, Thailand, and screened the playground equipment for lead content. In each playground, painted play equipment and the condition of painted surface were documented. This study shows that 20 out of 24 analyzed pieces of playground equipment contained total lead concentrations above 90 parts per million (ppm), dry weight. In addition, 14 analyzed pieces of playground equipment contained dangerously high lead levels above 10,000 ppm.; 15 out of 16 bright-colored painted surfaces contained lead concentrations above 90 ppm, dry weight; and the highest lead concentration detected was 72,300 ppm in a red monkey bar at a public playground in Benjakitti Park, Bangkok.
Co-Authors: Tanya Lee Roberts-Davis & Penchom Saetang
Ecological Alert and Recovery - Thailand (EARTH) | June 2019
Trading Away Health and the Environment provides an overview of the devastating impacts on the health and well-being of communities in Thailand where industrial waste processing facilities are being developed as part of an ongoing expansion of the transnational business of plastic and used electronics waste and scraps.
Authors: Jindřich Petrlík, Alice Dvorská, Václav Mach, Marek Šír, Jitka Straková, Akarapon Teebthaisong, Jana Tremlová, Peter A. Behnisch, Martin Bystrianský, Autthaporn Ritthichat, Penchom Saetang
By Arnika Association and Ecological Alert and Recovery - Thailand (EARTH) | December 2018
The data presented in the studies were obtained during sampling campaigns in Thailand in February 2015, February and March 2016, and February 2017. The sampling campaigns represent an important part of the project “Increasing Transparency in Industrial Pollution Management through Citizen Science.”
A report by Fortify Rights, October 2018
This report reveals that Thai authorities and Tungkum Ltd. committed and contributed to serious human rights violations and abuses against members of KRBKG and environmental defenders in Wang Sa Phung District, Loei Province. Violations and abuses include the arbitrary detention of human rights defenders and violations of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, a healthy environment.
Local residents in affected communities surrounding the gold mine largely rely on farming and the natural environment for their livelihoods and sustenance. Water and soil pollution has adversely impacted their daily lives and livelihoods. Residents have also complained about health conditions...
Bangkok Post 07 July 2022
Thailand needs a pollutant release and transfer register (PRTR) law so the public can be well informed about the risk of industrial pollution and the risk of disaster posed by factories, a seminar was told.
Bangkok Post 06 July 2022
On Monday, an environmental conservation network submitted a letter to the House of Representatives to resubmit a "Pollutant Release and Transfer Register" (PRTR) bill after it was rejected last year by the cabinet.
EARTH REPORT 05 July 2022
Thai Health Promotion Foundation and the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand held a commemorative seminar on the one-year anniversary of the Ming Dih factory fire in Samut Prakan.
EARTH REPORT 05 July 2022
The image of deadly scarlet flame and dark plumes of smoke billowing in the sky, brings to mind the haunting smell of chemicals and plastic that continuously burned for two days in July 2021.
Bangkok Post 05 July 2022
10,000 signatures sought to back law
A civil society network yesterday kicked off a campaign calling for the enactment of a law to create a database management system to help monitor the release and transfer of chemicals or pollutants in the kingdom.
PRESS RELEASE 02 July 2022
Bangkok/ Prague – EARTH Thailand [1], together with Arnika Association (Czech Republic) [2], call on the Thai parliament and government to accept the upcoming citizen’s draft of the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) act.
EARTH Report 30 June 2022
EARTH followed up on illegal damping at Tha Kradan, Chachoengsao – industrial waste still not removed after 7 months, liquid waste already infiltrated soi.
Bangkok Post 29 June 2022 | Punyathorn Jeungsmarn
In many areas countrywide, imported waste releases dangerous toxic chemicals, including Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) or "forever chemicals" -- so called because of their ability to remain in an environment and organisms for a long time.
PRESS RELEASE 29 June 2022
Bangkok, Thailand – In conjunction with the 2022 UN Ocean Conference which kicked off yesterday with an interactive dialogue on addressing marine pollution, Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand (EARTH) joined groups from around the world calling for Danish shipping company A.P. Moller - Maersk to emulate CMA CGM and stop shipping plastic waste from rich countries to weaker economies.
Pollution-Free EARTH 25 June 2022
“The recent fire at Wax Garbage’s recycling factory has raised many questions. The Minister of Industry had ordered officials to investigate the cause and impact of the fire, and to transport leftover chemicals to be properly disposed of within 15 days. But until now, there has been no explanation as to the cause of the fire. Meanwhile, suspicions are growing among the general public that this was a deliberate attempt to cheaply destroy large amount of industrial wastes that the company has to deal with”, said Penchom Saetang, director of EARTH.
EARTH Report 21 June 2022
Thailand Clean Air Network, allied civil society organizations, and near-hundred citizen, calls on government not to kill the #CleanAirAct
Near-hundred citizens led by Thailand Clean Air Network and its civil society allies gathered at the Thai parliament, where they submitted a letter calling on the government not to kill the “Draft Act on Comprehensive Management of Clean Air for Health B.E. …”.
Pollution-Free EARTH 18 June 2022
An initial report by Department of Health on June 16th, 2022, warns that due to severe fire at Wax Garbage Recycling Factory in Ratchaburi province, local citizens may face severe air pollution from burning of chemicals, waste oil, and paint waste. These substances often include Benzene, Toluene, and Xylene, which if burned emit toxic gases such Sulfur Dioxide.
Pollution-Free EARTH 17 June 2022
Locals of Nampu subdistrict Ratchaburi call on provincial governor to investigate cause and impact of the fire that broke out in Wax Garbage recycling factory on June 16th. Revealing that up to 34,625 industrial wastes are still left inside the factory, they also call on proper removal and disposal of those toxic substances.
PRESS RELEASE: BASEL ACTION NETWORK 17 June 2022
Geneva, Switzerland – After eight days of detailed and stressful negotiations this week and last, the Parties to the Basel Convention at their 15th meeting (COP15) held in Geneva agreed by consensus to the "Swiss-Ghana Amendments," establishing new definitions of hazardous and non-hazardous electronic waste, and ensured that both of these two categories of e-waste will either be banned from trade or at a minimum require notification by the exporting country and consent by the importing country prior to export.
Bangkok Post 22 March 2022 | APINYA WIPATAYOTIN
Environmental activist groups have filed a lawsuit with the Central Administrative Court against the National Environment Board (NEB) and two cabinet ministers for failing to deal with the country's pressing air pollution problems, saying every citizen has the right to breathe clean air.
The lawsuit was filed by representatives from Greenpeace Thailand, Environmental Law Foundation (EnLaw), Ecological Alert and Recovery-Thailand, Chiang Mai Breath Council, Northern Breath Council, the Rural Doctor Society and Climate Strike Thailand.
