BANGKOK, Dec 25 (TNA) — Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon presided over the “Seven Day Say Goodbye to Plastic Bags” event ahead of Jan 1, 2020 when many stores will stop distributing single-use plastic shopping bags.
In the event at the EmQuartier department store, Gen Prawit said the government and the private sector in Thailand had started their efforts to reduce plastic waste a few years ago and next year’s ban on single-use plastic shopping bags should cut their number by about 13.5 billion.
He urged consumers to use cloth bags and other environmentally friendly containers in place of single-use plastic shopping bags.
On the same occasion, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said that past efforts decreased the number of single-use plastic bags used at stores, markets, department stores and supermarkets by about 3 billion.
He said the campaign to start on Jan 1 next year focused on single-use plastic bags and he admitted that consumers still needed plastic soup bags.
Mr Varawut said consumers could help save the environment by sorting garbage to facilitate recycling and he hoped that environmentally friendly plastic products would be developed in the future. (TNA)
