Recent media reports about plastic waste and marine animals harmed by pollution have raised eyebrows, but this begs the question as to whether consumer awareness of plastic use is also being addressed by big businesses that provide products laden with plastic materials.
As we all know, Thailand's bureaucracy is slow, inefficient and tedious, so hopes of public initiatives to raise public awareness of reducing plastic waste are up in the air. On the other hand, the private sector can play a key role in reducing plastic waste by spearheading programmes designed to prevent excessive use of plastic-related materials in consumer goods.
Single-use plastics, often referred to as disposable plastics, are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used once before they are thrown away or recycled, according to UN Environment.
These items include grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery.
The economic damage caused by plastic waste is vast. Plastic litter in the Asia-Pacific region alone costs the tourism, fishing and shipping industries US$1.3 billion (43.3 billion baht) a year, said UN Environment.
"Plastic bag bans, if properly planned and enforced, can effectively counter one of the causes of plastic overuse," UN Environment said in its report entitled "Single-Use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability". "Nevertheless, to tackle the roots of the problem, governments need to improve waste management practices and introduce financial incentives to change the habits of consumers, retailers and manufacturers, enacting strong policies that push for a more circular model of design and production of plastics."
CORPORATE INITIATIVES
Thailand generated up to 2.33 million tonnes of plastic in 2015, according to Greenpeace Southeast Asia. Despite claims that 1.57 million tonnes was reused by communities and industries, there remains a substantial amount of waste that is disposed of both correctly and incorrectly.
There are 2,490 waste management centres nationwide, but only 466 of them manage waste using proper waste containment to prevent air and water contamination and proper controls over external factors such as preventing surface water from entering landfills, said Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
Phattaraporn Phenpraphat, executive vice-president of Central Food Retail Co, the operator of Tops Supermarket, said the company will take another serious step to encourage customers to use cloth bags or alternative packaging to replace the use of plastic bags this year.
Starting in August, on the 3rd of each month, the company will not provide plastic bags to shoppers at 277 Tops branches, up from the previous 193 stores.
The campaign will run until December, at which time an assessment of the campaign's success will be made.
"No plastic bags is not a new thing for Tops," Mrs Phattaraporn said. "We have promoted customers not using plastic bags, encouraging them by giving away free [shopping] points when they shop at our supermarkets for the past two decades."
At present about 200,000 customers refuse to receive plastic bags from Tops per month, up from about 100,000 in recent years.
"I feel that more customers are concerned and have greater awareness about environmental problems," Mrs Phattaraporn said. "Our encouragement has received a better response year by year from customers, particularly in Bangkok and major provinces, if they were informed in advance."
All Tops food courts are now free of foam packaging.
The company expects to reduce the use of plastic bags at Tops by 3-4 million between August and December, but this excludes 200,000 monthly customers who already refuse plastic bags. Tops uses about 200 million plastic bags a year.
"Central's top management is concerned about environmental problems," Mrs Phattaraporn said. "Apart from Tops, other business units under our group also take a serious approach in reducing plastic bag usage."
Besides plastic bags, Tops Food Hall and 27 branches of the Segafredo coffee chain will switch from using plastic straws to biodegradable straws made from 100% corn, she said.
BIODEGRADABLE CUPS
Since the 1950s, growth in the production of plastic has largely outpaced that of any other material, with a global shift from the production of durable plastics to single-use plastics including packaging, according to UN Environment. The making of plastic is largely reliant on fossil hydrocarbons, a non-renewable resource.
If the growth in plastic production continues at the current rate, by 2050 the plastics industry may account for 20% of the world's total oil consumption, said UN Environment.
As part of corporate social responsibility, PTT Plc, the national oil and gas conglomerate and founder of Cafe Amazon, announced a decision to reduce plastic waste.
In the long term, the company expects to cut plastic waste with paper cup replacement to the tune of 200 tonnes a year.
Jiraporn Khaosawas, executive vice-president for the oil business unit at PTT, said the company launched biodegradable cups for hot drinks six years ago, including paper cups coated with polybutylene succinate (PBS), a biodegradable substance.
For cold drinks, the group has coordinated with a sister company in the petrochemical sector, PTT Global Chemical Plc (PTTGC), on R&D to find a biodegradable plastic cup using polylactic acid (PLA).
The research conducted by PTTGC is meant to determine the appropriate quality and effective cost to replace plastic cups for cold drinks.
Cold drinks account for the highest sale volume at Cafe Amazon and normally require a large size of plastic cup, a single-use item.
"Single-use plastic has rapidly become popular among Thai consumers, so we need to spearhead [reduction of such plastic]," Ms Jiraporn said.
Further coordination of R&D may lead to biodegradable plastic bags at an effective cost with high quality, she said.
PTT is also looking for other kinds of biodegradable materials such as sugar-cane fibre from sugar millers.
The group plans to apply biodegradable plastics and new materials to other uses such as straws and packaging.
PTT may, however, promote other options as an alternative if the cost of biodegradable plastic is found to be unviable.
One campaign launched at the end of June offers a five-baht discount per cup if customers brings reusable glasses in place of the single-use plastic cups at Cafe Amazon. The campaign's success has yet to be confirmed, but PTT expects a warm welcome.
Recycled paper as a replacement for plastic bags is also being considered by the company.
"We are pushing this campaign to be PTT's crucial agenda for a marketing campaign in the second half," Ms Jiraporn said.
CHANGE FOR THE BETTER
Voralak Tulaphorn, chief marketing officer of The Mall Group Co Ltd, said the company will no longer provide plastic bags to shoppers at all business units in department stores on days 1 and 16 of every month, starting in August.
Customer who ask for a plastic bag will have to donate money to the Foundation for the Environment, Mrs Voralak said.
"We have been promoting a no-plastic-bag campaign for several years, and we were able to reduce the use of plastic bags by 4 million last year," she said. "We expect to reduce by another 6 million and 10 million plastic bags in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Within the next five years, we expect to reduce the use of plastic bags by 50%."
To achieve its goal, starting Aug 16 the company will stop giving plastic bags to customers at Gourmet Market, in addition to awarding 10 shopping points to discourage plastic bag usage.
In early August, the company will no longer provide customers with plastic straws at food courts, except when customers demand them.
Mrs Voralak said there should be a law to discourage plastic bag use by customers, while the government should conduct a poll to discern people's willingness to use fewer plastic bags.
"If the government enforces the law, customers could protest against it," she said.
Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), meanwhile, is reconsidering the design of its packaging as one factor to help reduce environmental impact.
The company has switched from a widely used petroleum-based plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), to plant-based and biodegradable PLA for food products, particularly fresh chicken and pork, making it the first company to do so in Thailand.
This transformation reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 83%, equivalent to the switching off of 12 million electric lights in one hour, said Sukhawat Dansermsuk, CPF's co-president and chief executive for food business.
During 2007-17, the company's paper and plastic usage fell by more than 2,315 tonnes, equivalent to a greenhouse gas reduction of 131,361 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
To tackle excessive plastic use, CP All Plc, the operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores and the 24 Shopping online channel, signed a memorandum of understanding with more than 30 universities nationwide on reducing plastic waste in stores located at these universities.
