Thailand began the year with a ban on single-use plastic bags that Bangkok office worker Nicha Singhanoi hoped would cut back the waste that puts her country among the world’s top five choking the oceans with plastic. Then the coronavirus pandemic forced school closures and authorities told people to stay home, and far from falling, Bangkok’s plastic waste has soared 62% in volume in April, as more people opt for food and goods to be delivered to homes.
“There is so much bubble wrap and product packaging, or bags and containers from food deliveries,” said Nicha, 27, an avid online shopper, who said that working from home deprived her of the time to cook. Even if the pandemic eases, environmentalists fear Thailand is simply a pointer for the situation elsewhere in Southeast Asia, home to four of the world’s top five plastic polluters of the ocean. The biggest is China. As much as 3,432 tonnes of plastic was thrown away in the Thai capital each day in April, up from last year’s average of 2,115 tonnes, city data shows. Contaminated items, from takeaway bags to containers, bottles and cups, made up more than 80%.
The food delivery sector is estimated to have grown 33% in just over a month to about 4.5 billion baht ($139 million), said Siwat Luangsomboon, deputy managing director of Kasikorn Research Center, a unit of the Thai bank. “Thailand was on track to slash single-use plastics by 30% this year with the bag ban, but with consumer behaviour shifting towards food delivery, we may not be able to get back on that track,” Siwat told Reuters. Food delivery service Line Man, owned by Japanese chat app Line Corp, has seen order numbers grow 300% from the beginning of Bangkok’s lockdown in March through the end of April, a company representative told Reuters.
Source: Reuters
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