News

Bangkok Post 30 June 2019 | Thana Boonlert

Asean Summit ratifies two initiatives to tackle harmful marine debris

The 34th Asean Summit culminated last week with the ratification of two green initiatives that should bode well for the future of the planet.

The Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris and the Asean Framework of Action on Marine Debris aim to strengthen regional cooperation to protect the marine environment. However, environmental advocates are urging all stakeholders to forbid foreign waste imports to reduce marine pollution.

Nikkei Asian Review 27 June 2019 | MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR

BANGKOK -- Thai environmentalists are pressing Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to slow the enactment of a law they say could create a loophole in monitoring pollution and result in Thailand importing more plastic waste from abroad.  

The law amends the 1992 Factory Act and is set to take effect in October. The amendment was approved in late February by the National Legislative Assembly, the then military-government's rubber-stamp parliament, to create a business-friendly environment, according to the government.

The Nation 21 June 2019 | Lea Guerrero and Tara Buakamsri

Asean leaders meet this week in Bangkok as their countries reel from an unprecedented deluge of foreign waste dumping. Yet neither waste trade nor waste is on the agenda, especially considering the summit’s stated theme, “Advancing Partnership for Sustainability”.

The Nation 21 June 2019 | PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 

Campaigners want Asean to target more than just marine plastic pollution  

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have called on Asean member states to go beyond a narrow focus in solving the problem of marine plastic pollution to also address the plastic waste trade, as the region continues to be inundated with imported trash.  

VOA 19 June 2019 | Zsombor Peter

BANGKOK - Environmental activists from across Southeast Asia are urging their governments to present a united front ahead of a major summit in Bangkok against a surge of plastic and electronic waste imports that are turning the regions into the world's "dumpsite."

Thailand, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will host the leaders of the 10-country bloc for a four-day summit starting Thursday under the banner "Advancing Partnership for Sustainability."

Khaosod English 19 June 2019 | Pravit Rojanaphruk

BANGKOK — Thailand and its Southeast Asian neighbors are becoming major dumping grounds for the world’s plastic garbage and electronic waste. Environmentalists now want to see a ban on waste imports imposed across ASEAN.

Environmentalists from Greenpeace Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines gathered at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Tuesday to discuss the sharp rise in waste imports seen by the three countries after China banned plastic and electronic waste imports in 2017.

Reuters 18 June 2019 | Patpicha Tanakasempipat

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Environmental groups called on Tuesday for Southeast Asian countries to ban waste imports from developed countries to help tackle a plastic pollution crisis, as regional leaders prepare to meet this week in Bangkok.

EARTH 11 June 2019

At the Civil Court for the Environmental Case on 11 June 2019, the villagers of Nam Pu subdistrict in Ratchaburi province who filed a lawsuit against the industrial waste treatment plant, Wax Garbage Recycle Center Company, refused to put further mediation process with the company.

Suffering repeatedly for nearly two decades, the villagers said they started to notice water contamination in their area in 2001, the same time as the company began its operation.

NNT 08 June 2019

Bangkok – Three government working groups have been formed with a goal of discontinuing the unnecessary use of plastic which creates a negative impact on the environment.

In almost a year, five major drinking water producers have discontinued the use of plastic cap seals starting on April 1, 2018.

Bangkok Post 07 June 2019 | Thana Boonlert

Locals near plants suffer, forum told

Given loopholes in laws, construction of new factories has kicked off before their environmental impact report has been finished which in many cases has caused environmental problems for locals, a seminar was told on Thursday.

Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH), said work began on building many factories before the Office of the National Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (Onep) had finished reviewing the reports.