Plastic bags captured near the RCA entertainment district on Kamphaeng Phet 7 Road, Thailand(Photo: bangkokpost.com)
Bangkok (VNA) – The Thai government has sought help from 230,000environmental volunteers in its campaign to help reduce the scourge of plasticwaste in the country, local media reported.
"These volunteers will act as a good model and alert people to thecrisis," the Bangkok Post quoted permanent secretary for natural resourcesand environment Jatuporn Burutphat as saying.
At a two-day meeting of the volunteer's network, which ended on December 4, Jatuporn said The volunteers will run the campaign in parallel with 75 stores which plan to ban plastic bags across their 24,500 retail distribution channels from January 1 next year.
He admitted the authority has limited manpower to carry on this uphilltask.
Apart of volunteers' disseminating environmental messages, the ministry willalso use online communication channels such as Line, Facebook and Youtube toget messages across.
Every year Thailand generates up to 45 billion used plastic bags, the papercited the Pollution Control Department’s data.
About 30 percent, or 13.5 billion of them, come from grocery stores while anequal amount comes from shopping malls, supermarkets and convenience stores.
Thailand has been named the sixth-highest marine polluter in the world.
About 2,172 tonnes of the 24 million tonnes of waste Thailand produces annuallyfinds its way to the sea./.
VNA
