* Bangkok plastic waste up 62% on delivery surge in lockdown
* Green groups worry about plastic "onslaught" in Southeast
Asia
* Four regional nations are worst ocean polluters after
China
By Patpicha Tanakasempipat
BANGKOK, May 11 (Reuters) - Thailand began the year with a
ban on single-use plastic bags that Bangkok office worker Nicha
Singhanoi hoped would cut back the waste that puts her country
among the world's top five choking the oceans with plastic.
Then the coronavirus pandemic forced school closures and
authorities told people to stay home, and far from falling,
Bangkok's plastic waste has soared 62% in volume in April, as
more people opt for food and goods to be delivered to homes.
"There is so much bubble wrap and product packaging, or bags
and containers from food deliveries," said Nicha, 27, an avid
online shopper, who said that working from home deprived her of
the time to cook.
Even if the pandemic eases, environmentalists fear Thailand
is simply a pointer for the situation elsewhere in Southeast
Asia, home to four of the world's top five plastic polluters of
the ocean. The biggest is China.
As much as 3,432 tonnes of plastic was thrown away in the
Thai capital each day in April, up from last year's average of
2,115 tonnes, city data shows. Contaminated items, from takeaway
bags to containers, bottles and cups, made up more than 80%.
Thailand's experience serves as a warning for the region,
said Wijarn Simachaya, president of the Thailand Environment
Institute, a think tank.
"The large increase is very concerning," Wijarn told
Reuters. "What progress we've made on the campaign against
single-use plastic has gone back to square one."
Despite a smaller pile of general waste as the lockdown
halted businesses, Thailand, which usually generates about 2
million tonnes of plastic waste annually, is likely to see a
surge of 30% nationwide this year, Wijarn added.
"There's a lot of plastics in one order, whether hot food
bags, sauce bags, or plastic utensils that also come
individually wrapped in plastic."
Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa acknowledged a
setback in the fight on plastic waste, but said he remained
hopeful Thailand could still regain lost ground.
"Don't fight many battles at a time," Varawut told Reuters.
"Now it's COVID first," he added, referring to the respiratory
disease caused by the virus, which brought 3,015 infections and
56 deaths in Thailand.
FOOD DELIVERY GROWTH
The food delivery sector is estimated to have grown 33% in
just over a month to about 4.5 billion baht ($139 million), said
Siwat Luangsomboon, deputy managing director of Kasikorn
Research Center, a unit of the Thai bank.
"Thailand was on track to slash single-use plastics by 30%
this year with the bag ban, but with consumer behaviour shifting
towards food delivery, we may not be able to get back on that
track," Siwat told Reuters.
Food delivery service Line Man, owned by Japanese chat app
Line Corp 3938.T , has seen order numbers grow 300% from the
beginning of Bangkok's lockdown in March through the end of
April, a company representative told Reuters.
Singapore-based Grab, another app, reported 400% growth in
its food delivery business in the week after the lockdown, but
said numbers later dropped to slightly above normal.
Foodpanda Thailand said it saw orders grow 50% in March from
February, with a rise of 10% in April on the month, while weekly
transactions hit a high in the first week of May.
OCEAN POLLUTION
Southeast Asia has long been a major contributor to
land-based plastic waste leaking into the world's oceans, say
environmentalists.
A region already grappling with poor waste management stands
to be hit hard by the "sudden onslaught" of plastic waste from
the pandemic, said the U.S.-based group Ocean Conservancy.
"We expect the damage will be significant in places already
vulnerable to ocean plastic pollution, like Southeast Asia,"
said Doug Cress, its vice president for conservation.
No pandemic-related plastic waste data has yet been made
available in other countries besides Thailand.
Top polluter China and the Southeast Asian nations of
Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, account for
more than half of plastic pollution in the ocean, Ocean
Conservancy said in 2015.
China has not released detailed data on plastic waste caused
by more home deliveries, which were up by a quarter in March and
April. Its environment ministry has focused on boosting capacity
to tackle soaring volumes of medical waste.
($1=32.2700 baht)
(Interactive graphic tracking global spread of coronavirus:
open https://tmsnrt.rs/3aIRuz7 in an external browser.)
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