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

Figure 4.24 Waste collection and transport process of plastic material flow in
Thailand, 2010
In the manufacturing process, there was 1.8 million tonnes of industrial plastic waste
generation out of which 155,000 tonnes (8%) was recycled in the recycling factories (PCD,
2010). Only 0.4% of industrial wastes was disposed at landfills in 2010, and 4% of
industrial plastic wastes (IPW) were reused as raw materials to produce plastic products
again (DIW, 2013). The industrial incineration was the favorite method to dispose
industrial plastic wastes (1.6 million tonnes) compared to landfilling and recycling.
Moreover, municipal plastic wastes (MPW) was also burnt in the industrial incineration by
using landfilled plastic wastes. There were five cement factories which used landfilled
plastic wastes as fuel substitutions (RDF). The RDF from landfilled wastes was produced
100,000 tonnes for two cement factories in 2010 (GEOCYCLE, 2011). The amount of
RDF used in the industrial incineration was 42,500 tonnes/year for five cement factories
(the details of calculation are shown in Appendix D).
From above figure, 9.5% of collected plastic wastes were exported to other countries. The
amount of waste combusted in the municipal incineration was 37,117 tonnes (2%). The
amount of waste combusted was estimated by considering the capacity of three municipal
incinerators at Phuket province, Koh Tao municipality, and Koh Samui municipality. The
most popular disposal method in Thailand is the landfilling consisting of sanitary landfill,
secure landfill, and open dumping landfill. The amount of plastic wastes are disposed at
landfills was 0.69 million tonnes (37%) in 2010 (PCD, 2010).
4.2.1.4 Recycling and plastic to oil
Approximately 14% of recycling rate based on the total collected municipal thermoplastic
wastes in 2010 including long-lived and short-lived products was estimated. This amount
of thermoplastic wastes was the aggregation of the amount of wastes for material recycling
(97%) and feedstock recycling (3%). Figure 4.25 presents the recycling and plastic to oil
processes of the plastic material flow in Thailand in 2010.
Thermoplastic wastes were used to produce the recycled materials in the recycling
factories. The formal form of recycled materials is a pellet form. The large amount of
thermoplastic wastes was not recycled, but it was only disposed and burnt at landfills and
incinerators. Therefore, the available policies and plans was considered to increase the
recycling rate of plastic waste from 14% to 30% within 2016 (MNRE, 2012)
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