Thailand Banned Imports of Electronic Waste

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Thailand government passed a law that prohibits imports of hazardous electronic waste into the country. This follows repeated incidents of dumping of such wastes by various countries including the U.S., Japan and Australia. The new notification by the Ministry of Commerce bans imports of as many as 428 different types of electronic scrap, effective mid-September this year.

Several environmental groups have welcomed the government decision. It should now ensure that the law is vigorously enforced. However, they noted that the government should do the needful to implement similar ban on plastic waste imports. In addition, it urged the country’s government to ratify the Basel ban amendment. Furthermore, it called upon all other countries in the region to implement similar ban.

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The study conducted by the Basel Action Network (BAN) by monitoring trade flows using GPS trackers had recently found that numerous waste exports, previously routed to China, ended up in other countries, Thailand being one among them. Following this, the authorities had carried out extensive raids in companies, which revealed tonnes of illegally imported e-waste.

Jim Puckett, Director, BAN urged countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa to strictly prohibit imports of plastics and hazardous waste, as was done by China.