At the moment, this very minute, over 30 million tonnes of garbage is scattered around the country -- untreated, leaking leachates, and stinking.
Worse, these mountains of waste containing up to a million tonnes of garbage at some sites are constantly growing as Thai people produce over 70,000 tonnes of garbage every day, only 30% of which can be properly treated or recycled, according to the Department of Pollution Control.
Waste management has risen to the forefront of the sustainable development and corporate social responsibility agenda over the past few years.
As more news comes out about how whales, sea turtles and other marine animals have died from eating plastic waste, people begin to realise that the link between our daily behaviour, the health of the planet, and eventually our own welfare is closer than many may have thought.
In response, state and business organisations have announced their policy to ban single-use plastics. At a more macro level, conglomerates and industrial giants have adopted "circular economy" practices, not as stand-alone corporate social responsibility activities but as a governing framework for their long-term strategies and operations.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said in July this year that, policy wise, environmental protection and social development are part and parcel of the government's 20-year national strategy.
He also said that the government will offer incentives to persuade companies to use natural resources more efficiently and promote the circular economy model more actively.
Philosophically, a circular economy is a nebulous concept that may be implemented in various ways. At its core, though, it is an attempt to come up with a regenerative system that leaves zero waste all the way from the design to the end-of-life stage of a product.
According to a Guardian newspaper database, circular economy seeks to use "as few resources as possible in the first place, keep resources in circulation for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them while in use, then recover and regenerate products at the end of service life.
This can be achieved through innovative design, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing. Thus circular economy is in contrast to the current linear economy model based on the concept of "take, make and dispose':
A circular economy also seeks to promote shared use and ownership to increase a product's rate of utilisation. Ultimately, the concept could lead to moving away from selling products to providing them as services -- renting light instead of buying lightbulbs -- to maximise reuse and recycling capability.
A NEW GROWTH ENGINE
Industry Minister Uttama Savanayana said that a circular economy roadmap, including framework, regulations and incentives, is being prepared for the cabinet's consideration.
He noted that the idea may be relatively new to Thailand but now is an opportune time for the country to embrace it.
The Industry Ministry has pushed an "Industry 4.0" strategy to transition Thailand from a labour- and resources-intensive model of growth to a high-value, digitalised one. A circular economy is a great tool to drive the transformation, Uttama said.
"Circular economy is a great hatch full of innovations;' the minister said. Since the model seeks new, innovative ways to produce goods that last longer with a minimum amount of waste and the possibility for it to be remanufactured and recycled, he said it may generate an endless number of ideas.
"What's more, we are talking about accessible innovations; those we use in everyday life. A circular economy could create many new businesses, start-ups, and services," Uttama said.
Science and Technology Minister Suvit Maesincee said a circular economy is one of the pieces in the BCG value creation model jigsaw the ministry is pushing.
The concept calls for development of bio-economy, circular economy and green economy. Targeted sectors include food and agriculture, energy and materials, health and medicine then tourism.
Appropriate technologies will be applied to uplift people at different levels in each sector. For food and agriculture, for example, productivity-driven tools such as seed enhancement could be promoted to one group of farmers while another might go for innovation-driven technologies such as drone-assisted precision agriculture.
"There are durian growers who have applied an Internet of Things approach to their production. They can automatically adjust the water level and temperature to produce fruits that suit the taste of each market -- a mild aroma for exports to China, for example;' Suvit said.
Likewise, the energy sector can see application of technologies ranging from promotion of biogas to development of bioplastic for medical uses.
"This way, the new growth model will be inclusive. It is intended to leave no-one behind. There will be disruptions but everyone will benefit in the end," Suvit said.
The minister noted that a circular economy lies at the heart of the paradigm shift. It is the driver of the new growth engine like an all-encompassing intellectual lynchpin.
"We have only one world. We can't put more stress on its carrying capacity," Suvit said.
The science minister projected that implementation of the BCG economy will boost Thailand's GDP by 25% to 4.3 trillion baht in five years.
"Some people assume that we lack technologies or innovations to make the jump but that is not exactly true. We have a lot of technologies in place but are short of effective management and coordination," Suvit said.
INNOVATION DRIVER
Petch Manopawitr, an environmental activist and founder of the eco-friendly start-up ReReef, thinks circular economy should be used as an economic decentralising tool to stimulate growth in small, community-based business.
Thailand is rich in natural resources, he pointed out. Thai people are generally good at product design. With a change in mindset and a dose of creativity, a variety of Suvit Maesincee Science and Technology Minister environmentally friendly materials can be developed for alternative forms of packaging to plastics.
To make the change, Petch does not believe that raising awareness alone is enough.
"Innovation follows necessity. If we make it a policy to ban single-use plastics or make it expensive to use them, people will come up with alternative materials or change their habits," said Petch who believes some kind of tax should be levied on single-use plastic to deter its unnecessary use.
Rit Syamananda, director of the Tax Policy Office, said the finance ministry is ready to support the government if it adopts circular economy. While it's possible to apply an excise tax to curb single-use plastic, Rit said he believes cooperation among business operators and spreading awareness among consumers of the need to reduce its use can be more effective.
Petch cautioned that to some people circular economy might seem like a technological fix; an expedient solution for big industries suffering from pollution but a concept that is fundamentally more of an attempt to mimic nature's ways, whether relative to industrial production or human consumption. It's about fostering a new awareness of resource utilisation and building social capital for a more sustainable future.
The industry minister is thinking along similar lines. He said a circular economy isn't just about waste management or taking care of the environment. Ultimately, he said, the ministry is treating the model as a driver of human resources development and innovation.
At a policy level, a circular economy may be interpreted and implemented differently based on each country's natural resource strengths, industrial development and personnel, Uttama noted. In his view, embracing circular economy will affect every industry and community around the country.
"Industrial plants don't only exist in urbanised areas. Agriculture-based industries and all types of plants are located throughout communities. With the new model, waste must be curbed and pollution must be wiped away;' Uttama said.
An awareness campaign is still necessary for both industries and householders to adjust themselves before the circular economy roadmap is introduced, he added. That is why the industry ministry has involved
the Federation of Thai Industries to hold public hearing forums among stakeholders on this topic soon.
"Among the challenges lying ahead is a need to expand understanding of circular economy among conglomerates, SMEs and beyond. We have to make people realise that the model isn't just about recycling; it's about changing the entire system."
He added that it has become evident that the resources-heavy, linear model of development that Thailand has pursued to date is not sustainable.
Increasing population and ever-growing consumption have put a tremendous stress on natural resources, not just in Thailand but everywhere around the world. Raw materials will become scarcer and waste management has already become a major problem.
The industry minister added that world markets are paying more attention to a product's origin and whether it has been manufactured in a way that is harmful to the environment.
"Thailand will lose out if we fail to catch up with the global trend," Uttama concluded. "The circular economy concept is something we can implement immediately. Let's start today."
