TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Thai national parks ban single-use plastics
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
In this file handout photo taken on November 25, 2019, veterinarians examine pieces of plastic waste and other trash totalling some seven kilograms recovered from the stomach of a dead deer at Khun Sathan National Park in Thailand's Nan province. (AFP/Handout/Office of Protected Area Region 13)
T
hailand on Wednesday banned styrofoam packaging and single-use plastics from national parks as it fights a scourge of waste threatening wildlife.
Waters off the coast of Thailand are choked with pollution and the coronavirus pandemic has brought a surge in plastic waste as demand for takeaway food grows.
The Thai Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said the ban was necessary to protect ecology.
Offenders can be fined up to 100,000 baht ($3,000) if caught travelling into the parks with single-use plastic items or styrofoam containers.
The new regulations came into force Wednesday after they were published in the Royal Gazette a day earlier.
The ban includes "carry plastic bags which are less than 36 microns, plastic food containers, cups, straws, and cutlery", the announcement said.
Greenpeace Thailand says plastic waste is a threat to the country's wildlife including its elephant population. Digesting plastic can block animals' intestines and disrupt the digestive system.
Elephants in Khao Yai National Park -- three hours northeast of Bangkok -- have reportedly eaten packaging, and plastic bags have been found in their faeces.
Plastic pollution on land can also wash into waterways and threaten river ecology and marine life.
Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Vietnam together produce half of the plastic waste in the world's oceans, according to campaign group the Ocean Conservancy.
Thailand outlawed the sale of single-use plastic bags at supermarkets and department stores in 2020, but they are still handed out by street food vendors, cafes, markets and smaller retailers.
Thais on average used around eight a day before the ban at major retailers was imposed.
The government wants 100 percent recyclable plastic to be in use by 2027.
More from The Weekender
Jakarta’s padel moment
From FOMO to full-blown obsession, padel has captured the city. What comes next may depend less on courts and more on the communities that grow around them.
The battle over memory
And why the government’s plan to rewrite its history books should alarm us all.
Are younger workers getting something right about work?
As micro-retirements gain traction, Gen Z and young millennials are challenging traditional ideas of ambition, success and when it’s okay to pause.
