(RES) THAILAND TIRES OF IMPORTING THE WORLD’S CRAP

As of January 1 2025, Thailand has officially banned the import of plastic waste. Introduced by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, the ban was approved by Thailand’s Cabinet on December 3 2024, and published in the Royal Gazette later that month.

The ban includes amendments to Thailand’s Tariff Schedule, which covers the import of waste, pairings, and plastic scraps. As a result, a complete ban of all imports of plastic waste has been enacted from January 2025 onwards.

Thailand has been one of several Southeast Asian nations commonly paid to receive plastic waste imports from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan, with 50,000 tonnes of waste exported from Japan to Thailand in 2023.

Thailand became the leading destination for these imports after China’s ban in 2018. Statistics from the Customs Department suggest that the amount of imported plastic waste jumped to more than 500,000 tonnes in 2018 - a tenfold increase from the average amount before 2015.

Illegal waste trafficking has been an area of particular concern and is another target of the ban. A 2024 report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights that Southeast Asia remains a key destination for illicit waste shipments.

In August, environmental campaigners such as the Basel Action Network (BAN) raised the alarm about two Maersk-chartered ships suspected of carrying hazardous waste from Albania to Thailand.

Thailand’s plastic plan

Discussions on the ban began in 2020, and a plan to phase out the imports has been in place since 2023. Since then, only 14 Thai factories in tariff-free zones have been allowed to import and utilise these items for export purposes.

The ban is part of a broader effort to reduce plastic waste in Thailand under the Roadmap on Plastic Waste Management for 2020-2030 released in 2019. Goals include a ban of several types of single-use plastics and a 100 per cent recycling rate for domestic plastic waste.

The ban may also be a response to the recent failure of the international community to reach a binding, global agreement on plastic pollution at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meetings in November. More of this quality journal (resource.co) - link - more like this (Thailand) - link - more like this (plastic) - link