Phuket to be waste management model for nation

PHUKET: The Royal Thai Navy has vowed to find a budget to fix Phuket’s third incinerator, broken since 2012, and make the island a model of garbage management for other provinces to follow.

Royal Thai Navy Commander Narong Pipathanasai made the pledge after touring the island’s waste facility at Saphan Hin on Monday.

On a similar tour in March (story here), Governor Maitri Inthusut noted that growing amounts of garbage on the island had filled all five of Phuket’s landfills, and that with two incinerators broken – one has since gone back online – it was impossible to keep up with all the trash coming in.

The amount of garbage on Phuket has been increasing at a rate of 7 per cent per year, said Phuket City Mayor Somjai Suwansupana on Monday, with spikes during the high season.

“The site can hold 1 million tonnes of garbage,” Ms Somjai said, “but it all needs to be disposed of eventually.”

“The operational incinerators can eliminate 700 tonnes of trash each day, but during high season we receive at least 900 tonnes.”

When all three incinerators are working, they can burn 950 tonnes of trash a day, Gov Maitri noted.

Garbage management has been an ongoing problem for the province, and environmental and medical experts have expressed their concerns over the broken incinerator, as it is the only one designed to properly disposed of medical waste (Special Report here).

— Athip Karndee