Pollution and waste

A new subcommittee on plastic and electronic waste will intensify garbage disposal measures by reviewing the existing quota on waste imports.The panel will work under the National Environment Board, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, which on Thursday resolved to endorse its establishment. The ...

Bangkok on Wednesday recorded the world’s third worst air quality on Air Visual, a popular app monitoring pollution, while City Hall is on high alert for a predicted rise in PM2.5 levels until the end of this week.The level of PM2.5 at 9.30am on Wednesday ...

Among Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa’s top priorities is reducing the amount of single-use plastic bags. To help him, 75 department stores, convenience stores and other shops with more than 24,500 branches nationwide have agreed to do so and from Wednesday they will ...

Thailand’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa on Wednesday told the media that the country would intensify the ban on e-waste and plastic garbage smuggled from abroad.“The ministry is serious in countering the imports of smuggled e-waste into Thailand,” said Varawut. “This is for ...

Thailand is notorious for its ad hoc responses to recurring and foreseeable problems– from seasonal flooding and drought to fatal road accidents during holidays. In recent years, dangerously unhealthy smog caused by fine dust particles known as PM2.5 has become another predictable threat that has ...

We are drowning in plastics. Unless we change our behaviour, there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the ocean by 2050. Solving this crisis requires us to do more than just banning plastic straws. We need a paradigm shift. We must adopt ...

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) collected close to 400,000 tonnes of garbage in canals across the capital over the past five years, the Department of Drainage and Sewerage says.Between 2015 and 2019, the BMA collected 387,261 tonnes of trash from 948 canals across Bangkok, Sansern ...

The Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBF) and Greenpeace held a press briefing last Thursday (12 December) at the Heinrich Böll Foundation Southeast Asia office in Bangkok, in which representatives of the two organizations called for a new global convention on the plastic crisis and for a ...

With the PM 2.5 dust particle value once again exceeding the standard in Bangkok and surrounding areas, Department of Health director-general Dr Panpimol Wipulakorn predicted on Thursday (December 12) that the air pollution would escalate this weekend.“Currently the PM 2.5 level is at 101-200 by ...

From rivulets to regionwide river channels, the Southeast Asian region hosts dozens of rivers. The most well-known river in Southeast Asia is the Mekong River – spanning five countries in the region itself.The Mekong, which is also the 12th longest river in the world is ...