American multinational chemical corporation Dow Chemical has joined a project with the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR) aimed at developing a system to better collect and recycle plastic waste under a circular economy model to reduce the growing amount of this type of waste.
As highlighted by the president of Dow Thailand Group, plastic waste in Thailand keeps increasing, a trend that has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been calculated that as a consequence of stay-at-home orders, plastic waste in Thailand increased by 15% to 6,300 tons a day, up from 5,500 tons daily.
Currently, less than one-quarter of the country´s plastic waste can be sorted for recycling, while the government has set a goal to have all plastic waste recycled by 2027.
The TISTR-Dow project will be carried out in Wang Wa community in Rayong’s Klaeng district and will develop a plastic waste separation center to take used plastics for recycling within three years. Dow and TISTR also want to develop online applications to promote proper waste management by connecting residents in the community and business people.
(Source: The Bangkok Post)