BANGKOK, Jan 31 – Thailand’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion and CP-All, the world’s third- biggest operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores, have launched a campaign aiming to encourage the public, particularly the youth, to cut their use of plastic bags at convenience stores for greater waste reduction in the country.
Department of Environmental Quality Promotion director general Jatuporn Burutpat said the amount of waste in Thailand has falled from an average 16 million tonnes a year by 300,000 tonnes as of 2013.
He said up to 20 per cent or 80,000 tonnes of the total waste quantity is plastic bags, which last year declined 10,000 tonnes a day. Fewer uses of plastic bags would efficiently help lessen pollution as plastic objects take longer time to decompose.
Mr Jatuporn said the “Kidtoong Kidtoong Season 3” campaign aims at reducing plastic bag usage to one bag a day in a bid to decrease the use of garbage bags.
This year, the campaign targeting youth will set up a network at schools nationwide so the students are aware of the effects of plastic bags. The project also calls on government sector to scrutinise the bill which allows bio-degradable plastic to be produced at lower cost as a solution to eradicate the use of plastic bags.
