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

increasing this capacity is necessary to make more profit for this business. This business helps
to increase space areas of landfills, but it requires a number of pretreatments which increase
the investment and operational costs of this project.
This business also helps to decrease the costs for land, construction, management, and
operation for new landfill site. This project is done by the municipality, so it is not done as
profit-business. Municipality cannot build a distillation unit like a petroleum plant to increase
oil selling costs because crude oil now is sold as heavy fuel oil with low profit. A distillation
unit can produce diesel, benzene, naphtha, and others, so the municipality could earn more
money from these oils. Nowadays, many companies in Thailand can produce pyrolysis
machines and sell them to factories and municipalities. Although it is easy to find machines, it
is difficult to find raw materials. This business will not be effective if the owner cannot find
large amounts of plastic bags to feed into the reactor. Thus, clean and sufficient plastic bags
are necessary for this business.
4. Environmental and safety aspects
The residue waste from pyrolysis reactor is not disposed rightly. It is only dumped next to the
factory (see Figure 5-d). This waste has bad odor, and it still emits vapor because it is just
removed from the reactor which is operated at high temperature. The feeding step is done in
bad operation because laborers cannot close the feeding door before the reactor door opens, so
bad odor will be released to their working area. This odor is not emitted to the environment or
people because this landfill is far from residential areas, and there are many buffers nearby the
landfill such as trees and mountains.
Residue gases are not treated by air pollution control devices, but they are only burnt before
released into the atmosphere. There is not any air pollution monitoring system following the
environmental law. In addition, labors do not wear adequate personal protection equipment
such as gloves, uniforms, boots, masks, etc., only a simple fabric respirator. Furthermore, they
execute physical labor in unfavorable body positions. There is a high chance of accidents and
long-term consequences to their health. There is not any insurance and welfare provided for
workers.
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