Good morning.
Picture Thailand and what comes to mind is white beaches and idyllic resorts. But the gritty reality is: Its rivers and seas are polluted with plastic waste, and its landfills are filling up fast.
And still, the country is importing even more plastic waste (which the government wants to ban) to feed its recycling industry.
Exactly how is Thailand grappling with all this waste? To find out, I followed the trash trail, literally.
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For one day, I walked with garbage collector Manas Sampaonoi as he made his rounds in the Bangkok neighborhood of Bang Kho Laem.
Manas typically collects 4-5 tonnes of garbage a day by hand. But this is a fraction of the estimated 10,000 tonnes that Bangkok produces in just one day – enough trash to fill four Olympic-sized swimming pools!
Only some of the plastic waste will end up at recycling facilities, and not all of the latter are compliant with environmental law.
We discovered one such recycling factory in Rayong province that has been illegally dumping waste and polluting the water supply of a nearby village since 2013. Villagers are now suing for 47 million baht (roughly S$1.8m) in compensation.
Despite some inspiring efforts, like the temple monks who are upcycling plastic into robes, I ended this production feeling more pessimistic than when I started. Thailand has a goal of recycling 100% of its plastic waste by 2027.
But from what I have seen so far, it still has a way to go.
Nicholas Deroose
Senior Producer, Insight
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