Food deliveries during lockdown fuel surge in Thailand's plastic use

This article is more than 12 months old

Jun 19, 2020 06:00 am

BANGKOK : Single-use plastic waste in Thailand ballooned during the coronavirus lockdown as demand for home food deliveries soared, activists say, setting back efforts to reduce the country's dependence on the environmental scourge.

The contagion has had mixed outcomes for Thailand's environment, with dugongs, turtles and otters returning to beaches normally packed with tourists.

But in urban areas, plastic food containers, cutlery and bags have piled up, clogging canals, rivers and landfills as people stuck at home because of the epidemic order take-away.

Urban waste almost doubled between January and March from a year ago, mainly due to increased food deliveries, said Mr Wijarn Simachaya, president of the Thailand Environment Institute.

In Bangkok alone, rubbish leapt by 62 per cent in April.

In Bangkok's network of canals, trash collectors pluck plastic bottles, bags and containers from the fetid waters.

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"Plastic pollution may kill more people than (the coronavirus) in Thailand," said 12-year-old environmentalist Ralyn "Lilly" Satidtanasarn, the kingdom's answer to Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

The Thai government aims for 100 per cent recyclable plastic to be in common use by 2027.

Thailand yesterday reported six new infections and no new deaths, bringing its total to 3,141 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 58 fatalities. It has recorded no new local transmission for 24 days in a row.