As of January 1, 2025, Thailand has officially banned the import of plastic waste. Thailand was one of several Southeast Asian countries that frequently received paid imports of plastic waste from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan. During 2023, 50,000 tons of waste were exported from Japan to Thailand, Resource reports.
Thailand became the leading destination for these imports after China imposed a ban in 2018. Statistics from the Customs Administration show that the amount of imported plastic waste jumped to more than 500,000 tons in 2018, a tenfold increase over the pre-2015 average.
Illegal traffic of waste represents a special problem and is also the target of this ban. The 2024 report, jointly published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), highlights that Southeast Asia remains a key destination for illicit waste shipments.
In August, environmental activists such as Basel Action Network (BAN) warned of two Maersk ships suspected of transporting hazardous waste from Albania to Thailand.
Phased out from 2023
Discussions on the ban began in 2020, and the plan to phase out imports is in effect from 2023. Since then, only 14 Thai factories in duty-free zones are licensed to import and use plastic waste for export purposes.
This ban is part of a wider effort to reduce plastic waste under the “Roadmap for Plastic Waste Management 2020-2030”, published in 2019. The goals include banning several types of single-use plastics and a 100 percent recycling rate for domestic plastic waste.
The ban could also be a response to the international community’s recent failure to reach a binding global agreement on plastic pollution during the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meetings in November.
Source: Circular economy
Source: energetskiportal.rs
