NONTHABURI, June 5 (TNA) — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment organized an event at the IMPACT convention and exhibition complex to mark the World Environment Day today, focusing on air pollution and plastic waste.
Wijarn Simachaya, permanent secretary of the ministry, said air pollution heavily affected Thai people recently and they were among nine-tenth of the world population who were suffering from polluted air which killed 800 people per hour and severely affected tourism worldwide.
Automotive technologies and efforts to properly handle garbage and weeds and ban field and forest burning were among measures to cope with air pollution in the country, he said.
For plastic waste, Thailand reduced the use of plastic bags by 1.3-1.5 billion units or about 2,600 tons per year while it used 2 million tons of plastic products annually, Mr Wijarn said. Only 500,000 tons of the plastic products were properly handled.
His ministry planned to end the use of plastic cap seals, oxo-degradable plastics and microbeads within this year and that of plastic shopping bags less than 36 microns in thickness, Styrofoam boxes, thin single-use plastic cups and plastic straws within 2022. (TNA)
