Thailand to ban plastic scrap imports in 2025

Thailand will ban imports of plastic scrap by 2025, in an effort to stop the country from being “a dump site for plastic waste,” Varawut Silpa-archa, Thailand’s natural resources and environment minister, told the Bangkok Post.

The first phase of the ban, starting in 2023, will limit the amount of imported plastic scrap based on production capacities at the plants that process the material. In 2024, only half of imports will be allowed, and the total ban will start in 2025, the Bangkok Post reported.

Thailand’s decision follows the trend of other Southeast Asian countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, that banned plastic scrap imports in the wake of China’s National Sword initiative.

Activists have recently called for the United States, the second-biggest exporter of plastic scrap to Thailand after Japan, to do more to curb exports that could cause environmental harm to other countries.

Waste Dive