4. Energy and Environment

This section covers the following topics: energy infrastructure, air quality, water, waste and soil

Indice

• 4.1. Energy
• 4.2. Air
• 4.3. Water
• 4.4. Waste
• 4.5. Soil

 

4.1. Energy

The energy and electricity sector in Thailand is governed by the Ministry of Energy (MOE) and involves multiple agencies: the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency (DEDE), the Department of Energy Affairs, the Energy Policy and Planning Office (EPPO), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA), the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA), the Petroleum Institute of Thailand (PTIT), and PTT Public Co. ¹Ltd.

Thailand’s total installed power generation capacity is around 49 GW generated by EGAT – Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand, Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Small Power Producers (SPPs), Very Small Power Producers (VSPPs) and imports. The installed capacity of renewable energy is around 11 GW (almost 23%) of the total installed capacity. Renewable energy in Thailand is mainly based on domestic generation, namely solar, wind, small and large-scale hydrogen, biomass, biogas and waste-to-energy. Thailand has renewed its focus on developing renewable energy to meet the growing energy demand and dwindling natural gas reserves. Numerous initiatives are planned across all renewable energy sectors.

The Royal Thai Government is preparing the National Energy Plan of Thailand (NEP), a strategy that envisions the future of Thailand's energy system up to 2040. The NEP will provide direction for development policy in the energy sector for both government agencies and private companies. The NEP, which is expected to be released by 2023, will combine and synchronize the five action plans,

• Energy Development Plan (PDP),

• Alternative and Renewable Energy Development Plan (AEDP),

• Energy Efficiency Plan (EEP),

• Natural Gas Management Plan (Gas Plan),

• Oil Management Plan .

The current PDP (year 2018 Revision 1) aims to increase generation capacity to 77.21 GW by 2037. This will be achieved primarily through the construction of power plants and power purchases by IPPs, as well as the use of renewable energy. Thailand plans to retire 25,310 megawatts of operational electricity capacity during the operational period of the PDP, meaning that by the target year of 2037, Thailand will need to add 53.52 GW of new capacity to its current deployment of 49 GW. Under the new energy plan, Thailand has proposed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2065-2070, with renewable energy accounting for a 50% share of its new power generation, replacing natural gas, which is currently the mainstay of its power generation sector.

Thailand has high potential to refocus its energy mix towards renewables. With high solar irradiance and abundant bioenergy potential, renewable energy is expected to account for more than 30% of the installed capacity mix by 2037. The country also has high potential for bioenergy, with abundant biomass, biogas and biofuel feedstock resources. Energy experts expect these energy sources to see rapid growth and government support to fuel the transition to renewables. In terms of new renewable energy capacity, there are four significant efforts targeting renewable energy: solar (8.74 GW), biomass (2.78 GW), hydro-floating solar (under the responsibility of EGAT, for 2.725 GW) and community power generation from biogas and biomass respectively (2.453 GW).

Thailand is piloting advanced grid system development to better manage the introduction of renewables. The private sector is also seeking opportunities to develop projects with power storage system (BESS) technologies. The government is actively seeking new policies to enable households to generate and store electricity and then sell excess electricity back to the grid. As part of this effort, the development of smart city pilots is being considered to assess the potential for expanding this facility nationwide.

Among conventional energy sources (as Thailand's domestic gas reserves are likely to be exhausted in the next decade or two), liquefied natural gas (LNG) will play an important role in ensuring electricity security in the medium term. With around 60% of Thailand's electricity currently generated from domestic natural gas, diversification of energy supply is seen as a necessary step towards greater national energy security. The government is importing more natural gas and expanding gas receiving terminals, regasification systems and gas storage tanks to increase capacity to 34.8 million tonnes per year by 2027.

Although Thailand's energy and power demand growth has slowed due to the global economic recession and the impact of the pandemic, the energy sector remains relatively attractive. The Thai market continues to demand power generation equipment that uses various types of fuels. The energy industry is important to Thailand as the country strives to achieve economic growth while maintaining energy security with a minimum of 20% energy reserves.

In 2022, Thailand adopted a Feed -in Tariff scheme for the period 2022-2030 ², in order to facilitate the production of renewable energy from Very Small Producers (less than 10 MW of installed capacity) and Small Producers (between 10 and 90 MW of installed capacity). This is a rather small purchase program for a total of 5.2 GW of new installed capacity ³.

 

Year	Biogas	Wind power	Ground mounted photovoltaic	Ground mounted photovoltaic with battery storage	Total
2024			190	100	290
2025		250	290	100	640
2026	75	250	258	100	683
2027	75	250	440	100	865
2028	75	250	490	200	1015
2029	70	250	310	200	830
2030	40	250	390	200	880
Total	335	1500	2368	1000	5203

Table : New installed capacity according to the 2022-2030 purchase program (values in MW), ground-mounted photovoltaics with battery storage is reserved for Small Producers, while all other entries are also open to Very Small Producers.

Producers are offered the Feed -in- Tariff as in Table 2, with an additional premium of THB 0.50 per kWh ($0.014/kWh) for projects located in the southern border provinces ( Yala , Pattani , Narathiwat and the districts of Chana , Thepha , Saba Yoi and Na Thawi in Songkhla ).

	Fit (TBH/kWh)	Fit (US$/kWh)
Biogas	2,0724	0.057
Ground mounted photovoltaic	2,1679	0.059
Ground mounted photovoltaic with battery storage	2,8331	0.078
Wind power	3,1014	0.085

Table : Feed -in Tariff by type of production

 

4.2. Air

Thailand is among the most polluted countries in Southeast Asia with particulate matter pollution reaching 23.8 μg / ^m3 in 2020, nearly 5 times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Current pollution levels are reducing the average life expectancy of Thais by 1.8 years compared to what it would be if WHO guidelines were met permanently. But in the northern region (Lanna), air pollution levels are 18 to 52% higher than the national average ⁴.

In 2016, it was estimated that over 33,000 deaths in Thailand were attributable to air pollution. Research has estimated that the social cost of PM2.5 nationwide in 2019 was nearly 11% of that year's GDP ⁵.

Air pollution in Thailand is seasonal, appearing as a widespread and long-lasting blanket of smoke and particles that occurs both in Thailand and in neighboring countries, including Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. It is a particularly acute problem in the north of the country, where nine provinces are heavily affected; air pollution levels peak between February and April, and the impacts will be felt across an area with a total population of around 6 million.

In the countryside of Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, the practice of smearing between November and May is still in use, a rudimentary method of fertilization obtained by burning the fields, which produces a blanket that, due to the dry winter monsoons, cannot be cleaned from the air due to the lack of rain. This blanket adds to the suspension of pollutants from China and India and forms the phenomenon called the "Asian Brown Cloud", clearly visible from satellites since the end of the 90s.

While sources of air pollution vary from place to place, sources generally include:

• increasing intensity of both light and heavy transport

• biomass and agricultural waste combustion

• fire for deforestation

• natural forest fires

• burning wood and coal for cooking

• incineration of residential and municipal waste

• cross-border emissions originating from other countries

• thermoelectric power plants

• urban dust resulting from construction work and lack of street cleaning

• emissions from factories and other industrial sources

Thailand's standards for air pollutants are less stringent than the WHO guideline levels ⁶. For example, the Thai standard for daily levels of PM2.5 is 50 μg /m ³ , compared to the WHO guideline of 25 μg /m ³ ; for PM10 the interim standard is 120 μg /m ³ , while the WHO guideline is 50 μg /m ³ .

Most laws and plans that directly affect air quality fall under the purview of multiple ministries. Those that regulate emissions from energy production fall under the purview of the Ministry of Energy, while those with a broader scope, from climate change mitigation and waste management to environmental quality standards, fall under the purview of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE). MONRE also manages Thailand's international commitments on climate change. Other relevant ministries include the Ministry of Industry, which covers industrial emissions, and the Ministry of the Interior, which is relevant to disaster prevention and mitigation (including fires), urban and rural planning, and enforcement, including at the provincial and local government levels.

This results in very specific policies that focus on a particular air pollutant or source and also limit their application, as other ministries or agencies cannot act on pollutant sources outside their mandate. These factors can lead to policies with a more limited overall impact.

Other obstacles include a lack of sufficient and accurate air quality data (the PCD has 70 air monitoring stations nationwide and large sections of the country are not covered) and the conflict between the government's push for economic growth and the need to protect the environment and human health.

The Pollution Control Department (PCD) conducts official monitoring of air quality, functioning primarily as an advisory body and setting national standards. It can alert the relevant ministry of air pollution incidents, but has limited enforcement powers. It also works with provincial governments during peak pollution periods to help them develop measures to control emissions.

In 2019, the Thai government decided to make air pollution a national priority. It subsequently released the National Action Plan for “Addressing the Problem of (Particulate) Pollution 2019-2024” ⁷. The plan aims to empower local authorities to better address sources of air pollution, such as factories and open agricultural fires.

Furthermore, the draft of a “ Clean Air Act ” ⁸for a global regulation of the matter is under discussion; between 2020 and 2021, the Stakeholders presented five drafts in total, three of which were rejected because they were incompatible with the Financial Law, two of which remained and were brought to the attention of Parliament.

 

4.3. Water

Thailand has 22 major river basins and 27 groundwater sources. For decades, Thailand has faced problems related to its water resources, including water shortages, droughts, floods, declining groundwater levels, and saltwater intrusion into its groundwater sources. For example, there were severe droughts in 1979, 1994, and 1999 that affected every part of the country, and in the last 10 years, an increasing number of recurrent droughts have affected a total area of 42,280 km². These droughts have caused considerable damage to the Thai economy due to severe water shortages affecting agriculture, consumption, and ecological systems. The persistent drought of 2015-2016 (considered the worst drought in the country in 20 years) has caused considerable losses exceeding US$2.5 billion, severely affecting agriculture (especially rice paddy). Similarly, the 2019 drought is estimated to have caused losses of $312 million due to the loss of crops, from rice, corn, sugarcane to tapioca. Thailand is also highly exposed to floods, which are by far the country’s most serious natural hazard in terms of economic and human impact ⁹.

Despite water scarcity issues, Thais have generally managed to have sufficient access to safe drinking water; the percentage of households with access to clean drinking water increased from 97% in 2012 to 98% in 2016 and 99.5% in 2019. However, the quality of available water remains a problem. Data from the Ministry of Public Health Drinking Water Quality Report 2009-2019 showed that only 40.8% of water available to households was suitable for consumption. On the other hand, 43.7% of household water required further treatment before consumption, while a further 15.5% included water that had been contaminated with chemicals above the recommended limit. Further studies also showed that approximately 59.2% of water used in households did not meet the required standards. Much of this water came from sources managed by local government bodies.

In terms of access to hygiene, 2019 data shows that 89% of household members in Thailand had access to designated handwashing facilities and 97.1% had access to toilets without having to share them. However, poorer and less educated households continue to face challenges in accessing toilets ¹⁰.

Thailand faces a variety of water-related challenges. Sustainable water management is expected to become increasingly challenging in the coming years due to population growth, economic growth, rapid urbanization, and the looming threats of climate change.

Continued economic and social growth, coupled with the transition to industrial agriculture, has increased Thailand's water demand. In 2021, the country's total water demand reached about 100 billion m³, of which agriculture accounted for 82.5%, followed by demand for ecosystem conservation (12.81%), consumption (3.73%) and industry (0.98%).

Population growth and an increasing number of tourists in the country, coupled with inadequate sewage systems, have led to pollution of surface water sources and thus deterioration of water quality. In 2018, the percentage of water from surface sources meeting the required quality standards was 91%. In 2019, this percentage had decreased to 82%. In addition, the percentage of poor-quality water sources doubled from 9% in 2018 to 18% in 2019. Regarding groundwater quality, some areas of the country have high levels of iron and manganese, resulting from geological and hydrogeological conditions. In 2020, some shallow aquifers were also found to be contaminated with heavy metals and volatile organic compounds from landfills and waste disposal sites of industries and some industrial zones.

As the climate continues to change, Thailand is increasingly affected by water-related threats. Droughts in the dry season and floods during the monsoon season are becoming more common, with nationwide impacts disproportionately affecting low-income communities that rely heavily on natural resources and agriculture for their livelihoods.

Aiming to manage the country's water resources effectively and align with SDG 6 (Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all), Thailand has formulated the 20-Year Master Plan on Water Resources Management (2018-2037). This plan is divided into six dimensions:

• management of water resources for domestic use,

• ensure water security for the production sector,

• flood and water-related disaster management,

• water quality and conservation,

• restoration of upstream forests and prevention of soil erosion,

• management approach.

In addition, the country has approved the Water Resources Act (2018), which is the main piece of legislation in this area. The Act covers the entire water resources system and assigns ministries to oversee the country's water resources. In addition, Thailand has also established the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR) as a focal point for all relevant agencies and the central authority that oversees the implementation of the Master Plan.

Thailand is also prioritizing equal and standardized access to sanitation and hygiene services. During the COVID-19 crisis, the Department of Health has raised awareness of the importance of proper handwashing procedures and assessed the willingness of business owners to provide customers with handwashing supplies such as soap, alcohol gel, and sanitizer. In addition, in the long term, the Department of Health is implementing the Sanitation and Waste Management Master Plan (2018-2029), which includes 5 key strategies:

• increase toilet use;

• increase the quality of public toilets in line with the lifestyles of Thai people;

• the development and global management of sanitation and waste services;

• development of the national sanitation system;

• the creation of comprehensive hygiene knowledge and habits.

Despite great progress, the country still faces significant challenges in implementing Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Although the Water Resources Act already exists, the IWRM struggles to be fully implemented due to overlap with other laws. Budget allocation for infrastructure also remains a challenge. Although the Act assigns the Office of National Water Resources (ONWR) as the central agency for coordinating all relevant agencies, some effort is still needed to ensure effective coordination and integration.

Municipal wastewater treatment systems can be classified into three types¹¹

• On-site wastewater system,

• Cluster wastewater system,

• Central wastewater system.

In 2017, the Department of Pollution Control published guidelines for the management of wastewater from homes and buildings (e.g., hotels, hospitals, schools, offices, department stores, restaurants, markets). Individual point sources should install primary wastewater treatment with grease traps and septic tanks, followed by a small wastewater treatment system to improve wastewater quality and meet building effluent standards before discharging into public sewers or infiltration basins.

In addition to collecting wastewater from individual point sources for further treatment, a cluster wastewater system (a small wastewater treatment plant with a wastewater volume of 50-500 m3/day) is used for small communities. In 2017, there were approximately 38 such plants, usually with simple biological wastewater treatment systems.

In 2017, 101 centralized sewage treatment plants were in operation, of which 12% had a capacity greater than 50,000 m3/day (large-scale plants), 45% had a capacity of 10,000-50,000 m3/day (medium-sized plants), and the rest had a capacity less than 10,000 m3/day (small plants).

The total treatment capacity of the wastewater treatment plants is only 2.64 million m3/day, equal to 26.6% of the total wastewater volume (equal to 9.93 million m3/day).

For industrial wastewater, the Industrial Estates Authority of Thailand (IEAT) is responsible for the central wastewater treatment plant of each industrial estate. The wastewater from each establishment must be preliminarily treated by the owner until it meets the water quality criteria specified by the IEAT, before being collected and treated again in the central wastewater treatment plant of the industrial estate. Currently, there are a total of 60 active wastewater treatment plants (out of 67 industrial estates). Most of these wastewater treatment plants (73%) are Activated Sludge and SBR systems, while the rest are lagoon (SP, AL) and rotating biological contact (RBC) systems.

Recently, advanced treatments such as activated carbon, microfiltration, ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis have been used to improve the water quality downstream of biological wastewater treatment plants in eight industrial zones in Chonburi ¹², Rayong , Prachinburi , Angkor Wat provinces. Thong and Samut Sakhon . This treated water is used as process water and cooling water for industrial processes and power plants.

Wastewater disposal rates are not homogeneous; in 2017 in Bangkok ¹³, households paid a flat rate of US$0.83 per month (30 baht), government buildings, offices, schools, hospitals and religious buildings paid a flat rate tiered based on consumption from a minimum of US$13.77 (500 baht) to a maximum of US$41.30 (1,500 baht), while hotels, shopping malls and factories paid a volume rate of US$0.11 per m3 (4 baht/m3), but in 2023 it was announced ¹⁴that disposal rates will be increased by up to double for certain categories of commercial and industrial users.

 

4.4. Waste

4.4.1. Production and treatment

According to the National Statistical Office of Thailand ¹⁵, the annual production of solid waste increased from 26.85 million tons in 2015 to 28.71 million tons in 2019, before falling to 24.98 million tons in 2020 due to the Covid-19 health emergency. During 2020, the production of solid waste further decreased, reaching 24.98 million tons.

The percentage of solid waste produced in urban areas varies between 56% and 58% of the total, however the percentage of the urban population represents only 34.3-34.5% of the total.

The average daily per capita production of solid waste varies between 1.13 and 1.18 kg depending on the year, but the urbanized population produces an average of 1.91 – 1.98 kg, while the non-urbanized population produces an average of 0.72 – 0.76 kg.

Municipal Solid Waste is composed of 64% organic and food waste, 8% paper, 2% metals, 17.6% plastic and the remainder is undifferentiated dry waste.

According to the Pollution Control Department (PCD) ¹⁶, in 2015, 50.2% of solid waste was not collected or was improperly disposed of, 18.5% was reused or recycled, and 31.3% was landfilled.

The Thai Government has found itself facing a real waste emergency, which has had particular international visibility for the impact of plastics on ocean waters; for this reason, the Thai Government has decided to address the reorganization of the sector, implementing a series of profound and complex structural reforms, according to the paradigm of the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

In 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reports that 27% of solid waste remains improperly disposed of, however 34% was recycled and reused, while 39% was properly disposed of ¹⁷.

4.4.2. Taxes and Fees for the Landfill of Solid Urban Waste

In the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, housing units pay a monthly fee for waste collection and a monthly fee for disposal, the two taxes are calculated in installments based on the daily volume of waste produced by the housing unit; for both, the minimum size, for daily volumes up to 20 liters, is 20 baht (0.52 Euro) ¹⁸.

The Metropolitan Area has planned to increase the tariffs, which should come into force in 2024, bringing the minimum monthly tariff to 30 baht (0.78 Euro) for the production of 20 liters per day, both for collection and disposal; the new tariff also introduces an incentive to separate waste at the source, thanks to which those who produce up to 20 liters of waste per day will pay collection and disposal fees of 10 baht each per month (0.27 USD).

Authorized landfills receive a disposal fee whose quantification is determined according to local conditions, generally of a very low value, also considering that sanitary landfills are very few. According to the study "Economic Assessment of Medium and Large-Scale Landfill Mining Business: Case Study Thailand” published in September 2023 ¹⁹, comparing two plants, one in Samutprakarn province , immediately southeast of the Bangkok metropolitan area , and the other in Chanthaburi province, on the border with Cambodia, it can be deduced that, in the first case, the delivery fee is around 17 dollars per tonne, while in the second the fee is 11 dollars per tonne.

4.4.3. Waste to Energy

The construction of waste -to- energy plants is encouraged by the Thai government, with the aim of reaching an installed capacity of 900MW by 2037 ²⁰.

At the end of 2018, the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency reported that 33 waste -to- energy plants were operational , with an installed capacity of 283MW; this was a considerable increase from the 65.72MW installed in 2014, but still below the 410MW target set by the authorities.

The construction of waste -to- energy plants , in particular waste-to-energy plants, represents a solution for closing the integrated waste management cycle, but it is also a source of perplexity and concern, as plants with a capacity of less than 10MW are exempt from the Environmental Impact Assessment: of the 33 plants active in 2018, only 2 had an installed capacity greater than 10MW.

Of the 33 active plants, 11 had been built in Private Public Partnership and another 15 were in the authorization phase with the same formula.

Thailand has adopted a Feed -in Tariff scheme ²¹, originally set at 3.66 baht/kWh (US$0.11), later reformed with a formula that varies according to the size of the plant (but still less than 10MW) and consists of a fixed component and a variable component, indexed to the inflation rate with reference to the year 2014.

 

Capacity	< 1MW	1MW – 3MW	> 3 MW
FIT(F)	3.13	2.61	2.39
FIT(V)	3.21	3.21	2.69
FIT	6.34	5.82	5.08

Table Feed -in Tariff scheme for waste-to-energy. The FIT(V) is indexed to the value of inflation based on 2014.

4.4.5. Plastic waste management

In 2018, Thailand produced 2 million tons of plastic waste, of which 0.5 million tons were recyclable plastic (mostly bottles), 1.2 million tons were plastic bags, and 0.3 million tons were other plastic waste (such as boxes, trays, bottles, lids). A quarter of the plastic waste was recycled, while the remaining 75% was sent to landfill ²².

Until 2017, China was the world's leading importer of plastic waste, however in that year the Chinese government introduced the “National Sword ” policy, under which it suddenly reduced imports by 99%: plastic waste flows were consequently diverted to Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand.

In 2021, pellets and flakes made from recycled plastic were selling for around 27 baht per kg (US$0.80) ²³, but although the huge influx of plastic waste, in addition to that from domestic production, has given rise to a rapid development of the recycling industry, Thailand has essentially risked becoming the dumping ground of Southeast Asia, with serious environmental management problems, due both to the loss of plastic waste, especially into waterways, and to atmospheric emissions from recycling processes and too many fires in waste piles ²⁴.

The Roadmap for Plastic Waste Management (2018-2030) aims to achieve several objectives:

• 100% reuse and recycling of plastic waste by 2027,

• switching to eco-friendly alternative materials and reducing or ending the use of various plastic products, including jar lids, oxo -degradable plastics, plastic microbeads, plastic shopping bags thinner than 36 microns, single-use plastic cups thinner than 100 microns, foam meal boxes, plastic straws (by 2022),

• reducing the influx of plastic waste into the sea by 50% by 2027.

Single-use plastic bags have been banned in stores since 2020, although they are still allowed in fresh markets and rural areas.

The Thai government has decided to reduce the import of plastic waste from 2021 and to completely ban its import by 2026, in order to promote the use of household waste.

 

4.4.4. Reform process

Waste is classified into five categories:

• Municipal solid waste,

• Infectious waste,

• Hazardous industrial waste,

• Non-hazardous industrial waste

• Community hazardous waste.

At the central level, different ministries take responsibility for each category.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), especially the Pollution Control Department (PCD), deals with municipal solid waste and community hazardous waste, the Ministry of Public Health collects infectious waste from hospitals and health centers, while the Ministry of Industry (Industrial Labor Department) and the Industrial Complex Authority of Thailand (IEAT) deal with hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste .

The implementation of the reforms has been made particularly complicated by the peculiar configuration of the Local Administrations, which follows a system that has stratified over time and sees the coexistence of Local Administrations directly controlled by the central government, through the appointment of governors and officials, while in other Local Administrations the government functions are elected and the officials managed at the local level. Within both Local Administrations, the various central Ministries have detached offices, so a given matter, including waste management, responds both to the horizontal management of the Local Administration and to the vertical management of the competent ministries.

In fact, since the 1990s and before, waste management was substantially delegated to the self-management of Local Administrations, but since 2014 the Thai Government has also had to undertake a process of reorganization of the administrative machine, centralizing control and direction functions as much as possible and making Local Administrations responsible with objectives, specific acts and guidelines, including the aggregation of Local Administrations into Clusters.

Here is a chronology of the main reforms:

• 2014, Reorganization of the Governance of Municipal Solid Waste . The Ministry of the Interior became the main actor for the management of municipal solid waste, and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment became the planner (Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 12/05/2015). The municipal solid waste management committees at the national and provincial levels were formed in 2017, the municipal solid waste management committees at the district and local administrative levels were formed in 2019 (according to the Law on Maintaining Cleanliness and Order of the Country, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of 16/06/2015)

• 2014, Support for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) for waste management (National Council of Peace and Order Resolution of 26/08/2014). In 2019, there were at least 11 new waste -to -energy projects in PPP and another 15 waste management projects were in the authorization phase

• 2015, Clustering of Local Administrative Organizations (LAO) for Municipal Solid Waste Management . In 2019, over 700 LAOs were clustered into 324 waste management clusters, this number was reduced to 262 clusters in 2019.

• 2016, National Master Plan for the Management of Solid and Hazardous Waste (2016-2021) .

  • Promote appropriate technologies for waste and refuse management: sanitary landfill, semi-aerobic landfill, fermentation for biogas production, fermentation for fertilizers, technologies for Secondary Solid Fuels, incineration/combustion.

  • Promote a specific law for the management of solid urban waste.

  • Promote cooperation among LAOs for waste management.

• 2018, Law on the Maintenance of Cleanliness and Order in the Country, BE 2560 (2018) .

  • Establish a committee for the management of municipal solid waste.

  • Adjust the limitation of waste tariffs,

  • Guidelines for subcontracting and PPP for waste management,

  • Guidelines for cooperation between LAOs in municipal solid waste management.

• 2023, 2nd National Action Plan on Waste Management (2023-2027) . Approved by the Council of Ministers on 7 February 2023, it outlines the following objectives:

  • 80% of municipal solid waste will be managed properly, 36% by encouraging separate collection at household level and recycling and

  • Promote waste-to-energy which aims to reduce the quantity of waste to be disposed of improperly (for example, open-air landfill, open-air combustion) and sent to landfill

  • Increase the use of recycled materials in production lines from recyclable waste, such as plastic waste and paper, glass, aluminum packaging waste, from 74% to 100%

  • Reduce food waste by 28% resulting in odor prevention in landfills and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

  • Not less than 50% of the community's hazardous waste will be adequately managed.

  • 100% of infectious waste and hazardous industrial waste will be managed properly.

 

4.5. Soil

Thailand has undergone major industrial development for over half a century and is now an upper-middle-income economy. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, it transitioned from an agriculture-based economy to one focused on export-oriented manufacturing, integrating high-tech manufacturing in the automobile (largely assembly) and electronics sectors. Other manufacturing industries include textiles and apparel, rubber–plastics, jewelry, footwear, and cement. There is also a relatively small mining and quarrying sector and petrochemical activities in the eastern region. The economy is now undergoing a transformation toward higher value-added manufacturing and service sectors.

Development and manufacturing facilities are largely concentrated around Bangkok and the Eastern Economic Corridor, with the north, northeast and far south less developed.

Due to the shift towards a manufacturing economy with the development of dedicated industrial areas, as well as the presence of industrial waste disposal and collection sites and illegal industrial waste dumping sites, Thailand faces significant land contamination problems in brownfield sites.

The National Environmental Quality Improvement and Conservation Act ²⁵of 1992 is the main environmental law in Thailand. It sets standards for soil and groundwater quality, and was revised in 2013 to include a requirement for environmental insurance for activities that could cause damage to the environment or a potentially contaminated site, as well as an environmental fund to finance the cleanup of contaminated sites ²⁶.

A new 2016 Ministry of Industry regulation, “Control of Soil and Groundwater Contamination in Industrial Areas ²⁷,” requires some new and existing facility owners to collect soil and groundwater samples within the facility and monitor their quality at regular intervals to ensure that soil and groundwater contamination criteria are not exceeded. Where exceedances are found, facility owners are required to propose measures to control and reduce the contamination and report to the Department of Industrial Works within 180 days of identifying the problem. Owners are also required to propose a timetable for resolving the issue.

Another promulgation later in November 2016, the Ministerial Notification on “Screening Levels and Investigation of Soil and Groundwater Contamination at Industrial Site” ²⁸, provides further details on the methodologies for soil and groundwater contamination assessments and the soil and groundwater quality standards against which the test results will be compared.

The National Environmental Board of Thailand published the revised Soil Quality Standard in the Royal Gazette on March 11, 2021. The new standard classifies soil into two groups based on its intended use, distinguishing between (1) residential use and (2) other uses (which include industrial, commercial and agricultural use). In both cases, the screening parameters are 41, divided into heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, pesticides and other substances (such as PCB-126 and TCDD). The analysis methodology explicitly refers to the SW-846 standard of the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States.

In 2020, a general guideline ²⁹for the remediation procedure was published, which provides for a process that begins with a preliminary investigation, followed by a site characterization and risk analysis; a remediation plan must be drawn up, which must be executed and followed by a monitoring plan. The general procedure specifies that the environmental damage must be quantified and compensated, but does not clearly specify the responsibilities of the Authority and of those who caused the contamination or of the owners or concessionaires of the land, however the 2016 directive relating to industrial sites transfers the burden of preparing the remediation plan and carrying out the works to those responsible for the contamination or the owners or concessionaires of the land, just as the public authority has the power to act to enforce laws and regulations.