Sustainability and Plastics Committee: Introduction to PPP Plastics

On February 12, at the AMCHAM Citi Boardroom, Poranee Kongamornpinyo of Dow Chemical Thailand shared information on plastic waste management and presented the introduction slides on the Thailand Public-Private Partnership for Plastic and Waste Management.

The PPP was established by the Plastic Industry Club and the Federation of Thai Industries, in partnership with the Thailand Business Council for Sustainable Development (TBCSD), organizations from the public and private sectors, and members of society to address the growing environmental concern of poor plastic waste management.

Thailand was ranked the sixth of global marine plastic debris in 2010. In the roadmap to Thai government’s plastic reduction, the goal is to reduce plastic marine debris at least 50% by 2027. In order to achieve this, the Thai government has started to impose a ban on three types of plastics – microbeads, cap seals and oxo-degradable plastics and to influence consumer behavior, launched its “Everyday Say No to Plastic Bags” campaign.

The PPP taskforce contributes to this shared goal by working with local communities and private companies to implement the circular economy model for plastic recycling and segregating wasting effectively. They focus on four key areas such as infrastructure, education, innovations, policy and legislation, and database to end plastic waste to the environment. Together with local communities they have successfully built plastic circular economy models in Rayong and in Bangkok metropolitan, resulting in training 27 communities to segregate waste effectively and recycling 264. 55 tons of plastic waste. Through communications and education, the PPP continues to create awareness in local schools and with the municipality staff. Porannee ended the presentation with future plans of PPP to engage multi-stakeholders.

This meeting was attended by 35 AMCHAM members and was a platform to learn more about what is happening in the public private sector towards plastics reduction; as well as discuss challenges with recycling, lack of information, and consumer habit. Members agreed that there is a need to generate awareness, educate, change the people’s behavior, and provide incentives. They also prioritized the need to set up guidelines on basic recycling how to’s and where. AMCHAM members Indorama, Linear to Circular and DOW Chemicals will prepare the first draft of this document, which will further help prepare a policy paper on plastic waste management.

The AMCHAM Sustainability and Plastics Committee and members will meet again in March for developing the AMCHAM position, design and implement constructive activities on this important issue. The meeting and discussions closed with the announcement of “AMCHAM Reduce Single Use Plastic Challenge” campaign to be held in the last week of February.