Evaluation of Plastic Waste Management in Thailand Using Material ...

5. From the material flow analysis, the existing account of plastic waste management
was observed. The municipal plastic waste generation was found to be of 2.58
million tonnes in 2010. The amount of thermoplastic and thermosetting waste
generation within MPW was 2.55 million tonnes and 25,771 tonnes respectively.
Approximately 14% of thus collected municipal plastic waste was recycled in 2010,
whereas 37% of these wastes was disposed at landfills. 15,330 tonnes of landfilled
plastic wastes which was used by 7 plastic to oil recovery plants. 2% of municipal
plastic wastes was burnt in three municipal incineration plants. A huge amount of
nearly 1.39 million tonnes of municipal plastic waste was dispersed into the open
environment.
6. As far as the industrial plastic waste goes, approximately 87.6% was co-incinerated
at the industrial incineration facilities, while 8% of industrial plastic wastes was
recycled. Only 0.4% of industrial plastic wastes was disposed at landfills in 2010.
7. Three different plastic waste management scenarios were proposed to predict the
plastic waste management in the year 2016. Scenario 1 was the business as usual
(BAU), scenario 2 was the increment of plastic recycling rate to 30%, and third
scenario explored the case of plastic waste to energy generation as one of the
plastic waste management options. Scenario 1 showed the amount of municipal
plastic waste generation will increase by 2.63 million tonnes in 2016. The amount
of plastic production will rise to 5.94 million tonnes in 2016.
8. The second scenario anticipated the recycling rate to increase to 30%, following the
National Environmental Quality Control Plan (2012-2016). This scenario was
divided into 2 parts such as scenario 2A and scenario 2B, and these scenarios based
on the 3Rs law to reduce amount of waste generation and the enforcement of plastic
bag taxation scheme to lower consumption of plastic bags. The percentage of
recycling rate in 2016 will change from 14% of municipal recycling rate and 8% of
industrial recycling rate in 2010 to 30% of plastic recycling rate. The amount of
recycled product generation will be 1.28 million tonnes in 2016.
9. For scenario 2B, around 40% of municipal plastic wastes will be disposed at
landfill, whereas 59% of industrial plastic wastes will be burnt at the industrial
incineration. For scenario 2A, the percentage of municipal plastic waste for
landfilling will be equal to 30%, and approximately 8% of municipal plastic waste
will be disposed in open environment. Furthermore, the percentage of municipal
incineration will be the same as in 2010 (2%). Similarly, the amounts of plastic to
oil and landfilled waste to RDF will not change in 2016.
10. The last scenario presented that 10% of municipal plastic wastes will be incinerated
at both municipal and industrial incineration facilities. The percentages of
municipal plastic waste recycling and landfilling will be 14% and 37%
respectively. However, the amount of industrial plastic waste utilization at
industrial incineration facilities will be the same as in 2010 (87.6%). The amounts
of RDF production from landfilled wastes and fresh plastic to oil in 2016 will be
0.3 and 0.23 million tonnes respectively. Finally, the numbers of plastic to oil
plants will increase by 30 plants in 2016.
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