plastics

  • Environment News

    Thailand bans single-use plastics from national parks, know before you go

    The next time you go for a hike, swim or boat ride in Thailand’s protected great outdoors, make sure to leave disposable plastics at home — except for a water bottle. Beginning April 6, all single-use plastics and styrofoam products are banned from entering national parks in Thailand. Specifically, single-use plastic items such as bags, spoons, forks, straws, cups and…

  • World News

    BTS promotes Samsung’s ocean cleanup campaign in ‘Galaxy for the Future’ MV

    In a new music video, South Korea’s BTS is promoting the recycling of ocean-bound plastics and the use of eco-conscious packaging for the new Samsung Galaxy S22 Series smartphones. The MV capped off last night’s Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event, which saw the release of Samsung’s newest devices, with an eco-friendly emphasis on their Galaxy for the Planet initiative and the…

  • Technology News

    Samsung builds phones with old fishing nets, bets you’ll pay premium prices

    Your next Samsung smartphone will certainly come with a hefty price tag, despite presumably less premium materials. But you can feel good about it because, who knows, you might be saving the whales. In a Sunday press release on their website, Samsung announced it has created a new material “made with repurposed ocean-bound discarded fishing nets,” which it plans to…

  • Environment News

    Bangkok temple develops hygienic face mask from recycled plastics

    During the nationwide closure of temples and festivities during the Songkran holiday this week, some are taking the opportunity to improve hygienic practices. To help protect members of the temple and the community from contracting Coronavirus, the Abbot from Chak Daeng temple, on the banks of the Chao Phraya just south of Bangkok, has been busy crafting recycled plastics into face…

  • World News

    Fire in Kanchanaburi sends foul smoke over Burmese border

    Yesterday, a large area of the province of Kanchanaburi was engulfed in stinking toxic smoke after a garbage fire ripped through a 3-rai (51,667 squared metres) garbage dump in the district of Sangkhlaburi, right on the Burmese border. The garbage tip is located next to a sugarcane farmer’s village. 2 fire trucks were sent by Kanchanaburi officials to extinguish the…

  • Environment News

    Major corporations join the fight against plastics

    by Ghislaine Bovy Reduce. Re-use. Recycle. The public is now fully aware of the gigantic plastic pollution issue. They know it’s time to act and act now. Many of us have already “gone” into using reusable plastic bags, refillable bottles and buy fruits and vegetables in bulk instead of in individual plastic bags, small shops don’t give you a plastic…

  • Politics News

    Thailand’s plastics industry wants the government’s help to keep afloat

    There may be less plastic bags being handed out around Thailand, and that’s a good thing. But there’s been a down side – the failure of an entire industry and the people it employees. Now the Thai Labour Minister is being asked to step in and help the dozens of Thai plastic bag manufacturers which are at risk of closing…

  • Environment News

    Not all Thais are happy with plastic bag ban

    “There are also thousands of street side vendors of drinks, including the most popular Thai iced coffee and Thai tea, which come in a plastic cup, with a plastic lid, with a plastic straw, in a plastic bag.” After many positive reports, including from The Thaiger, it now seems that many Thai customers and vendors pushing back against the January…

  • Environment News

    Deer found dead in Thai national park – 7 kilos of garbage found in stomach

    PHOTO: Thai Residents Thailand’s love affair with plastic, coupled with a casual attitude to littering, appears to have claimed another wildlife victim. The body of a wild deer has been found with an astonishing 7 kilograms of garbage in its stomach. The deer was found at a national park in Nan province, northern Thailand. Thai Residents reports that the deer…

  • Environment News

    Autopsy on dead 15 year old Hawksbill sea turtle held today

    PHOTO: Thai PBS World Veterinarians from the sea turtle hospital at Sattahip naval base in Chon Buri, south of Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand, are doing an autopsy on a dead endangered Hawksbill sea turtle. The one metre long and 40 kilogram dead sea turtle, believed to be about 15 years old, was found floating near Koh Juang in…

  • Environment News

    Thai government to consider bringing forward plastics ban

    That’s a ban on of single-use plastic bags, styrofoam (polystyrene) boxes, plastic straws and single-use plastic cups In a surprise announcement, the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment says they’re considering bringing forward, by 1-2 years, a complete ban on the use of the key plastic polluters. Varawut Silpa-archa, the Natural Resources and Environment Minister, says the department’s proposal,…

  • Environment News

    Lamphun monks ahead of the trend to eliminate single-use plastic bags

    Phra Samutnatthee Suvathato, the deputy Abbot of the Wat Pa Book, in the Pa Sang district of Thailand’s northern province of Lamphun, says their temple has been ahead of the trend to reduce the use of plastics for two decades. Lamphun is just south of Chiang Mai. They’ve already been using a portable kitchen cabinet to receive alms from Buddhist…

  • Environment News

    Mariam the young Krabi dugong dies

    PHOTO: กรมทรัพยากรทางทะเลและชายฝั่ง The Phuket Marine Biological Centre has announced the sad news about the special young dugong ‘Mariam’, who was found in Krabi back on April 26. Young Mariam died earlier today. The centre posted on its official Facebook page that the vet team found that she’d stopped breathing and her pulse had stopped as well, so they brought her…

  • World News

    ASEAN commit to eliminating marine plastic

    “At present, four ASEAN members are the world’s top ocean polluters, namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.” At the recent 34th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok last month the 10 member states of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) adopted “The Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in the ASEAN Region” in an effort to eliminate marine plastic debris in the region. ASEAN…

  • Environment News

    First year report card for Thailand’s battle against plastics

    “Plastic waste is a major environmental problem because it takes hundreds of years to degrade.” Yesterday was World Environment Day, a fitting day to give Thailand’s fight for a reduction on plastics a report card, after the first full year of campaigns to reduce single-use plastics. The Pollution Control Department says Thailand’s efforts have been successful after receiving general cooperation from…

  • Environment News

    Thailand to ban three kinds of plastic by end of this year

    By the end of 2019 Thailand will be free from three types of plastic – microbeads, cap seals and oxo-degradable plastics. Then by 2022 four other types of single-use plastics will also be banned – lightweight plastic bags less than 36 microns thick; styrofoam food containers for takeaways; plastic cups and plastic straws – according to a road map approved by…

  • Environment News

    Thailand to ban import of plastic waste

    The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is proposing to the Thai cabinet a total ban on the import of plastic waste into Thailand. The ban would start in 2020. Thai PBS reports that the Natural Resources and Environment Minister Gen Surasak Karnjanarat says, that as imports of plastic waste are to end next year, Thailand will increase recycling of…

  • Opinion

    December 4 – Thailand’s national day of shame

    Today is Thai Environment Day. Today convenience stores, trade stores and shopping malls will refrain from providing single-use plastic bags to shoppers and at the same time will campaign for donation of cloth bags to be distributed to hospitals for containing medicines. Whether any of this actually happens, we will see. The proposed plastic bag-free day is the outcome of…

  • Bangkok News

    Huge gains in reduction of single-use plastics – 30 universities

    A network of 30 universities across the country has succeeded in reducing the number of single-use plastic bags, utensils and cups by 41 million pieces so far this year, it was announced during the Sustainable University Network of Thailand Conference 2018 hosted by Thammasat University. And that’s just at 30 universities. The Nation reports that the 30 universities’ plastic-use reduction…