The COVID-19 crisis has an impact on waste increase in Thailand. From the report of the Pollution Control Department (PCD), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, it recently found that waste, particularly plastic containers, rose on average by 15 percent from 5,500 tons per day to 6,300 tons per day. In the past 10 years, the average plastic waste was generated on average 2 million tons per year, 0.5 million tons of which was recycled, leaving the unrecycled waste of 1.5 million tons mainly because it had not been sorted at the source. This was considered as loss of opportunity for utilising resources more effectively. Having realized the importance of solving the problem sustainably and comprehensively through the involvement and cooperation of the civil society, public and private sectors, Thailand Responsible Business Network (TRBN) and allies therefore launched the “Send Plastic Home” project to promote the “sort at home, drop with us” campaign. They also provided consumers with information on how to properly sort plastic waste. This was not only for the safety of the garbage collection tricycles and staff,  but also would help the reduction of plastic waste to landfill, increase the private companies’ plastic recycling through the recycle/upcycle process, and therefore improve a circular economy.

The “Send Plastic Home” project was initiated with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Stock Exchange of Thailand, with the pilot period of 2 months from May to June 2020. There were 10 plastic drop points installed along Sukhumvit Road at 1) Emporium, 2) EmQuartier, 3) Singha Complex, 4) Bambini Villa, 5) Broccoli Revolution, 6) A Square, 7) The Commons, 8) Tesco Lotus Sukhumvit 51, 9) CP Fresh Mart Phetchaburi 38/1 (Sukhumvit 39), and 10) Veggiology, collecting two types of cleaned plastic waste: stretch plastics and hard plastics. There was also a point collection for rewards application called the ECOLIFE. The project received active participation from various organizations: sponsors for logistics system, recycling/upcycling companies, brand owners with strong policy on the disposal of plastic waste, sponsors for public relations, and academics lending a hand with data collection methods for research and further implementation steps. Additionally, there were 24 allies, comprising private sector of all sizes, public sector, civil society, and academic sector, cooperating throughout the plastic value chain in order to ‘close the loop’ by taking plastics from consumers, reprocessing them, and thus creating the circular economy.

“We would like to express our appreciation to every party for the initiatives and projects for the environment and better future of our nation. It has become clear to us now that when the waste is properly disposed, none of the trouble would happen. Therefore, it is time that we should strive towards the full circular economy. With the collective actions we have seen today, used plastics can be recycled. Now that we have the “Send Plastic Home”, next we can have “Plastic for Merit”, for example, GC could upcycle plastics into T-shirts, toys, materials, and monk robes. With today technologies, the “loop” can be closed. If we give up our convenience and comfort, we then can tackle this plastic waste problem. Plastics will be handled properly, whether by sending them home or turning them into something else. Now, we, the public and private sector, will join hands in making the future. Sea must be plastic free, and wild animals will not mistake plastics for food. We have to save the world for the future generations”, said Mr. Warawut Silpa-Archa, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.

“SEC encourages the listed companies to incorporate ESG into their business for sustainability and disclose ESG-related activities. To do so, we organise knowledge sharing sessions, provide handbooks and guidelines, and carry out activities and projects to support ESG-related activities, for instance, the Market Governance Promotion Initiative in Celebration of HM the King’s Coronation, co-founding the TRBN, the Vibhavadi Zero Waste campaign under the Market Governance Promotion Initiative in Celebration of HM the King’s Coronation. The latter invites the listed companies and other companies located or having projects located on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road to collaborate with SEC in effectively managing waste in their organizations.    

As for the “Send Plastic Home” project, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to TRBN for initiating the project and inviting us to participate. The project is the right solution to plastic waste problem and will contribute towards creating the circular economy. We believe that this project marks a significant start to solving the problem, and therefore would like to invite everyone to continue your support and take part in this project,” said SEC Secretary-General Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol.

“Building the circular economy” cannot be done singlehandedly. Not just by the public sector or just by one single business. It requires the collaboration of companies throughout the plastic value chain, and importantly the participation from consumers sorting plastics at their homes, as well as support from the public sector. We therefore proposed this pilot project and allocated the drop points on Sukhumvit Road, with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the private sector of all sizes, civil society and academic groups. All of us, 24 organizations, join hands to take the used plastics from consumers, put them into the recycling process, and transform them into some new products for consumers again. This is, in other words, we call closing loop,” said Mrs. Pimpan Diskul na Ayudhya, Director of the Thailand Responsible Business Network.

“GC and the allies jointly initiated the project by establishing drop points on Sukhumvit Road which is truly an urban area. GC believes in sustainability and will incorporate it in one of our core business strategies. GC would like to propose solutions for all as follows: 1. Bioplastics - landfill and eco-friendly, 2. Plastics are useful material - use and dispose properly, 3. Cooperation – build an ecosystem through collaboration with the public and private sectors. Success begins at home. We believe that the new norm is plastics have great benefits if managed properly. GC will promote knowledge sharing and support implementation,” said Kongkrapan Intarajang, Chief Executive Officer of PTT Global Chemical Public Limited Company.

“Learning and Research & Development is one of the vital mechanisms for developing the “Send Plastic Home” project into a pilot model of circular economy that comes with the involvement of every sector in the society,” said Prof. Dr. Pisut Pianmanakul, Deputy Dean and Professor of Department of Environmental Engineering, Chulalongkorn University.

“Plastic waste is a problem that has been dealt with for a long time and is rendering great impact on the global ecosystem. This will have an impact on the quality of life of human and the environment. However, plastics will be greatly useful with proper and systematic management under the concept of circular economy. To solve the problem in the long run, CPF is collaborating with the Thailand Responsible Business Network in implementing the “Send Plastic Home” project, which invites participation from manufacturers and consumers in sending plastics to the source for recycling in order to optimize its use,” said Prasit Boondoungprasert, Chief Executive Officer of Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited.

“In the present-day society, it is generally known that the growing use of plastic products increases plastic waste every year, and widely impacts the environment. Kaew Krung Thai Co., Ltd., the developer of Application C3Leng (C Saleng)- a recycle waste management application - truly appreciates being a part of the “Send Plastic Home” project, which will reduce plastic waste in communities by effectively bringing them into the recycling process. We hope that this project will be fully cooperated by every sector and successfully achieve its goals,” said Mr. Boonchu Satitmannaitham, Managing Director of Kaew Krung Thai Co., Ltd..

“TPBI Public Company Limited finds that consumers tend to choose recyclable packaging to comply with the principle of circular economy. The key of recycling is proper sorting of waste. To encourage people to sort their waste and understand the recycling principles, we therefore start the Won project and participates in the Send Plastic Home project. To do so, we take stretch plastics and hard plastics for recycling from people in order to concretely promote a public conscience and understanding in recycling,” said Mr. Kamol Borisudthanakul, Chief Financial Officer of TPBI Public Company Limited and founder of the Won project.

“Unilever Thailand announces our collaboration with TRBN in the “Send Plastic Home” project. We have launched the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan as the blueprint for business growth in a manner that will not have any negative effect on the society but will help improve people health and their quality of life. In 2020, USLP will celebrate its 10-year anniversary and we have committed to reducing negative impacts on the environment by half through the use of plastic packaging that are reusable, recyclable or 100% degradable. In the previous year, we announced the plan for halving the use of virgin plastics in packaging and made a commitment to collect and process plastic packaging more than we sell by 2025.  Unilever Thailand is on the road to plastic revolution by replacing virgin plastics in packaging to post-consumer recycled plastics (PCR), but this is not good enough as the key to the circular economy is sorting waste at the source, cleaning, and collection. The undesirable, non-recyclable plastic waste with adverse impacts on the environment is the non-stretch, multilayered plastics found in for example, snack bags, soap and refill bags for soap and other solutions. Sending such plastics home is an important factor in reducing plastic waste and giving it the new life cycle,” said Ms. Nattinee Netraumpai, Senior Manager of Corporate and Public Relations of Unilever Thai Group of Companies.

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Contact Information

Further details on the Send Plastic Home project and proper waste sorting are available at https://www.facebook.com/sendplastichome/?ref=bookmarks. For additional information, contact Ms. Ramrada Ninnad at 081-819-0110, or email: earth111@gmail.com.

Who is TRBN?

The Thailand Responsible Business Network (TRBN) was established by Thai Listed Companies Association in cooperation with other 9 organizations, namely, 1. Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 2. Bank of Thailand (BOT), 3. Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), 4. Federation of Thai Capital Market Organizations, 5. Government Pension Fund (GPF), 6. Global Compact Network Thailand, 7. Social Enterprise Thailand Association, 8. SB Thailand, and 9. Thai Institute of Directors (IOD). The primary mission is to collaborate and encourage listed and private companies, and other sectors to incorporate sustainable development concerns into their respective corporate and operational goals, and to launch projects in response to problems and demands in various dimension of the public on a constant basis, with concrete evaluation and reporting, for positive effect and recognition at the national and global levels.