As if plastics were not threatening enough to the environment, officials have finally woken up to the danger of the most dangerous of all the common pollutants. After years of turning their heads, police and government now are discovering the great environmental disaster from discarded electronics.
Right under the eyes of officials appointed to know better, the nation has become one of the world's great dumping grounds for downright dangerous, discarded mobile phones, PCs, CDs, game boxes and a hundred other items from the massive mobile and internet supply lines.
As dandy as the 35-year-old tech revolution has been, the fallout that has hit Thailand has environment-harming results that endanger all Thais. Tens of thousands of tonnes of this worn-out, downgraded, broken or just discarded tech junk has hit and continues to hit Thai shores. Last year, three countries -- Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore -- offloaded 53,000 tonnes of this junk on Thailand. Dozens of other countries also ship their tech garbage here.
