Thai Tourism and Sport Minister Weerasak Kowsurat on November 27 pledged to cut tourism-related waste by 50 percent by 2020.
Illustrative photo (Source:
chiangraitimes.com)
The minister highlighted the
responsibility of authorised agencies to clean up the environment and raise
awareness amongst Thais as well as seek cooperation from tourists to safeguard
waters and land.
He stressed that single-use plastic bags, fabric bags, portable water bottles,
foam boxes and single-use drinking straws will all be wiped out.
The minister said one of the main campaigns this year in promoting eco-tourism
is to ask private sectors for cooperation in eliminating the use of
non-degradable products at tourism hot spots.
Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has also banned the use of
single-use foam and plastic containers in all 154 national parks country-wide.
Meanwhile, Thai Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Surasak
Kanchanarat said that waste had created a negative impact in Thailand's forest
ecosystems.
He added that the ministry launched a "Green National Park" campaign
in 2015 and laid out policies amongst stakeholders in all national parks.
There is an immense drop in the use of plastic bags since the campaign was
launched, he noted, underscoring that there are much to do more to tell
international friends that Thailand is very serious in tackling plastic waste.
The environment ministry said in a statement that in the past 10 years, plastic
wastes had accounted for about 12 percent of the total wastes, an equivalent of
2 million tonnes a year. These plastic wastes were also difficult to decompose
and recycle, therefore the best resolution is to eliminate all single-use
plastic bags and foams, said the minister.
According to the Pollution Control Department's information, of the 10.78
million tonnes of garbage generated in 23 coastal provinces in 2016, about 1.3
million tonnes were plastic trash and 74 percent of them were properly disposed
of, while the remaining were washed into seas.
Source: VNA
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