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

12%, 10%, and 7% respectively. The following orders are the plastic for agriculture (4%),
recreation (4%), footwear (1%), medical devices (1%), and other (5%).
In 2012, there were about 5,778 plastic factories in Thailand out of which 400 were the
plastic recycling factories (6.92%). The plastic bag factory was 27.71% of all kinds of
plastic industries (DIW, 2012). 80% plastic factories are in the Central part of Thailand in
BMA region e.g., Bangkok and perimeters or around 80% of all factories, and 8% is in the
Eastern Thailand (OIE, 2011). The annual data of plastic industries in 2010 are shown in
Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Annual Data of Plastic Industries in 2010 (PTIT, 2010)
List Value No. of factories
Amount of production labor (person) 205,566 1,874 factories
Amount of other labor (person) 52,084 1,509 factories
Production capacity (tonne/year) 2,310,185 1,749 factories
Actual production (tonne/year) 2,214,101 1,749 factories
Total sales (million Baht) 123,447 1,141 factories
Capacity Utilization (%) 95.84 1,740 factories
Amount of masterbatch used (tonne/month) 170,752 1,656 factories
The plastic industry can make 220,000 million Baht of revenue. The exported products are
the important issue to make the high revenue, and Japan is the biggest plastic exported
market, especially in 2011 when the disaster from Tsunami and earth quake was occurred
in Japan. The major partners of Thailand are America, Austria, China, and Japan, and the
main competitors of plastic markets are Malaysia and China (OIE, 2011). The revenue
from product exported were more than 80,000 million Baht, but the expenses from product
imported were more than 83,000 million Baht (OIE, 2010). The trade deficit was caused
from balancing of revenue and outcomes of imported and exported products because the
slow economic growth affects the ability of plastic industrial development.
Therefore, Plastic Institute of Thailand (PIT) proposed the plastic industrial development
plan for 2012-2016. The goal of this plan is that Thai will become a leader on plastic
industry in Asian and supporting the sustainable development of plastic industry within
2016. In 2016, the plastic product generation will be increased by 5% per year, or from
3.18 million tonnes to 4.48 million tonnes. The total revenue from plastic products will be
increased by 333,000 million Baht in 2016 (OIE, 2010).
The overview of plastic industry was presented by the trend of plastic production,
petrochemical industry and international markets. Table 4.2 shows the amount of product
generation, imported-exported products, and virgin material used in country in 2002, 2005,
2010, and 2011. The virgin material or masterbatch is used to produce the plastic products
in the plastic manufacturing.
Masterbatch or plastic resin is petrochemical products which are added the pigments
(colorizing) or other additives. Masterbatch is a mixture of pigments and/or additives
which is produced through a heat process generating a plastic resin. After processing, it is
supplied in granule form. Plastic producers usually use the needed colored masterbatch, so
they order either colored masterbatch or uncolored masterbatch from the petrochemical
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