More rubbish than ever

Thai households discarded 26.9 million tonnes of waste last year, up 3% from 2014, but only half of it was properly put out for collection and disposal, according to the Pollution Control Department.

The department said 13.3 million tonnes of that garbage, or 49%, was dumped wherever people felt like leaving it. Only 13.6 million tonnes, or 51%, was put out for proper disposal by local garbage collection services.

Of this, 8.4 million tonnes was dumped in landfills and 4.9 million tonnes was recycled, department director-general Wicharn Simachaya said on Thursday.

Hazardous waste from households rose 2.6% from 2014 to 591,127 tonnes in 2015. Sixty-five percent of it was discarded electrical and electronic appliances and the rest batteries, light bulbs, chemical containers and the like.

The amount of infectious waste increased by 3.7% from 2014 to 5,400 tonnes in 2015 and 75% of it was properly incinerated.

Industrial waste amounted to 37.4 million tonnes, including 2.8 million tonnes of hazardous industrial waste. Forty-six percent of hazardous industrial waste and 75% of non-hazardous industrial waste was  disposed of properly, Mr Wicharn said.

He said the figures were reached using a mathematical model.

Last year the Pollution Control Department also checked air quality in 29 provinces. Saraburi had the worst figures, with unsafe levels of air pollution on 150 days, followed by Lampang (89 days), Samut Prakan (81), Bangkok (74) and Khon Kaen (70), Mr Wicharn said.