Thailand is one of the biggest contributors of ocean plastic waste.
Every year, eight million tons of plastic goes to the ocean. Thailand, with other countries mainly from Asia represent 60% of the amount. Thailand is one of the top ten ocean plastic polluters. The biggest polluter is China which topped the list with 8.82 million tons of plastic waste each year. Thailand is responsible of 1.03 million tons.
If no efforts are made by Asia’s countries, the situation could result by a serious increase of 80% which will surpass 200 million tons by 2025. Asia has to change. If they don’t, in a few years ocean could contain three tons of fish for every one ton of plastic.
This situation causes environmental damage in the world and serious problems to wildlife. Indeed, the number of marine animals entangled by plastic debris or found with plastic in their stomachs is increasing. Greenpeace’s department of Marine and Coastal Resources say “that almost half of Thailand’s ocean waste is plastic”.
However, we can read some positive points on the Royal Thai Embassy’s website regarding projects to clean plastic in the country. Last week, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced that Thailand wants to clean and protect their ocean. Therefore, Thais are developing a plan to deal with plastic waste issue in their country and to protect the ecological system.
In November 2018, Thailand will host a meeting with members of ASEAN to talk about marine debris management and to push them to have concrete measures to reduce waste pouring into the oceans.
In conclusion, there is a big problem with plastic management in Thailand, but the country is decided to make changes and to resolve its ecological problem. Also, Thailand has to change because of tourism otherwise they would probably lose a subsequent amount of travelers.
