A campaign promoting the sorting of household waste has begun paying off, says the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
The amount of rubbish received by the city's waste management facilities and the cost of waste treatment has dropped in the past five months, BMA spokesman Aekvarunyoo Amarapala said on Saturday.
The overall city waste volume fell by 67,248 tonnes from February to the end of last month, or about 444 tonnes per day, when compared to the same period last year, resulting in a reduction of 127.8 million baht in waste treatment costs, he said.
In a year-on-year comparison, the quantity of waste the BMA received dropped by 200 tonnes per day on average, or 2.25%, in February; 272 tonnes per day, or 3%, in March; 318 tonnes per day, or 3.6%, in April; 713 tonnes per day, or 7.5%, in May; and 719 tonnes per day, or 7.4% last month.
The fall in the amount of rubbish requiring treatment has brought treatment costs down in the city by 10.6 million baht in February, 16 million baht in March, 18.13 million baht in April, 42 million baht in May and 41 million baht last month, the spokesman said.
"This clearly is a result of BKK Zero Waste, a waste separation project the BMA and public and private partners have jointly been carrying out," he said.
The BMA is working with communities across the city as well as 998 businesses, education institutions, fresh markets, religious outlets and organisers of public and festive events.
Its partners are encouraged to separate their waste into wet, dry and recyclable categories before it is picked up by BMA rubbish collectors.
In another project, the BMA has encouraged households, businesses and other organisations to separate kitchen waste from biomass, such as leaves and grass, Mr Aekvarunyoo said.
The volume of wet waste received from a total of 1,112 sources taking part in the project fell by 55 tonnes per day, he added.