E-waste crackdown reaches Bangkok, as police sniff hazard in Laem Chabang Estate

[webfact]

E-waste crackdown reaches Bangkok, as police sniff hazard in Laem Chabang Estate

By The Nation

 

Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol General Wirachai Songmetta displays discarded gaming machines found at a plant inside the Laem Chabang Industrial Estate in Chon Buri province.

 

A crackdown on illegal electronic waste dumping and imports expanded to Chon Buri yesterday when police searched Laem Chabang Industrial Estate.

 

The crackdown began on last Tuesday when National police deputy chief Pol General Wirachai Songmetta led a raid on a waste management plant in Chachoengsao’s Plaeng Yao district, responding to an allegation that hazardous industrial waste had been smuggled from abroad to be burned at the facility, spreading toxins in the area.

 

 

Yesterday, Wirachai led a team from the Industry Ministry and Customs Department to inspect factories on Laem Chabang Estate after allegations they had falsely reported their imported cargoes. The search netted a consignment of electric wiring from Japan and Hong Kong which was stuffed into five containers. Wirachai said the police would charge the factory owner for illegal smuggling of electronic waste, and examine the permit of the facility.

 

 

The Ministry has ordered nationwide action and instructed local Provincial Industry Offices to inspect all electronic-waste recycling plants in their areas to ensure factory operations are in line with laws and regulations.

 

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha has thrown his full support behind the nationwide inspection of the e-waste recycling business, stressing the urgency of strict law enforcement and improvement of business operations.

 

 

The scale of the problem first became apparent when the raid last week in Chachoengsao uncovered huge piles of keyboards, electrical wires and computers sitting ready for workers to recycle or discard by burning or other methods. 

 

Burning electronic circuit boards to extract heavy metals risked contamination of the surrounding environment, while hard plastic parts were toxic when burnt or would take millions of years to disintegrate when buried, said Wirachai, who led the raid by police and officials against WMD (Wai Mei Dat) Thai Recycling Co Ltd’s 100-rai factory in Tambon Plaeng Yao Plaeng Yao. He added that this hazardous industrial waste required specific and proper disposal methods.

 

The unnamed Chinese owner of the facility has been accused of importing potentially dangerous electronic waste under false Customs declarations.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30346551

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-30

[bluesofa]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

E-waste crackdown reaches Bangkok, as police sniff hazard money-making opportunity in Laem Chabang Estate

 

[Borzandy]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

A crackdown on illegal electronic waste

Is it the inefficacious weekly crackdown?

[bluesofa]

25 minutes ago, Borzandy said:

Is it the inefficacious weekly crackdown?

Correct, apart from the smelling mistake: It's "weakly crackdown"

 

[Formaleins]

They are only interested in the waste that hasn't had its due's paid, all of the other waste that they import then bury or burn is of course perfectly OK as long as someone has coughed up the lolly first.

Nothing to do with the environment, it is just the usual pure greed.

[wvavin]

"the police can sniff...." Please don't make me laugh as these idiots are only capable of sniffing tea money and nothing else!

[Damrongsak]

13 minutes ago, wvavin said:

"the police can sniff...." Please don't make me laugh as these idiots are only capable of sniffing tea money and nothing else!

Money comes from many countries and it takes a connoisseur's nose to smell the profit that is wafted from the air coming off these containers.

Edited May 30, 2018 by Damrongsak

[IamNoone88]

No mention of Customs who let this into country .... 

[Lupatria]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The unnamed Chinese owner of the facility

...that explains his status in the food chain.

[Lupatria]

5 minutes ago, IamNoone88 said:

No mention of Customs who let this into country .... 

Look at it this way: there is good e-waste (as declared on the price tag) and bad e-waste.

[bluesofa]

5 minutes ago, IamNoone88 said:

No mention of Customs who let this into country .... 

It's a win-win in the tea money stakes: Customs plus the police.

 

[Emster23]

Is this side effect of China's decision for other countries to deal with their noxious crap? This is the "Thai way"?

[petermik]

Are the hoards of chinese tourists clogging up beach road every day for their free parachute rides actually being used to dump these items in the bay.....U never know

[bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, petermik said:

Are the hoards of chinese tourists clogging up beach road every day for their free parachute rides actually being used to dump these items in the bay.....U never know

Which items - the rubbish or the Chinese tourists?

 

[petermik]

7 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Which items - the rubbish or the Chinese tourists?

 

Both...

[sammieuk1]

Don't add to the pile by dumping your ecigs keep calm and carry on vaping.

[Yann55]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

The unnamed Chinese owner

 

Words fail me ....

 

I wonder when Thai people will begin to realize how the Chinese (and not only from the mainland) really see them and their country. How they consider it to be their backyard, vassal state, garbage dump, cheap labor reservation, and cheap fun playground.

 

If Thais weren't so busy focusing on blaming farangs for anything that goes wrong here, they would perhaps start to see who's really, deeply and inexorably making fools of them.

 

I also wonder when the non-Chinese Thai people will realize how much the sino-Thais despise them, their skin color, their lack of wealth and their beliefs, even though these sino-Thais were born here and are Thai nationals.

 

This situation bears a very nasty resemblance with what Europe was like before the French revolution : a bunch of arrogant aristocrats held all the power and the wealth just because they were born in the right families, thought themselves generous when they threw a few crumbs at the poor, and believed in all honesty that they were superior beings.

 

In that context and for centuries, the poor bowed their heads, despised themselves, sought solace in religion (which was controlled by the rich and powerful), died young, and did their best not to 'think too much'.

 

And one day... the pressure-cooker went "BOOM"!.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2018 by Yann55

[digger70]

This one is an easy fix ,Charge and jail the offenders and let them Pay to send the Crap Back to where it came from. 

[maxcorrigan]

5 hours ago, car720 said:

If China really wanted to pollute Thailand they would just send it down the Mekong.  The Chinese are not involved in anything where there is not a profit.  Someone has not been paid their dues.

Yes and then if there is no money to be made push it on into Laos!

[webfact]

Thailand is new dumping ground for world's high-tech trash, police say

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Juarawee Kittisilpa

 

Custom officers stand next to electronic waste hidden in a freight container during a search at Leam Chabang industrial estate, Chonburi province, Thailand, May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand is a new dumping ground for scrap electronics from around the world, say police and environmentalists, the latest country to feel the impact of China's crackdown on imports of high-tech trash.

 

Police at Laem Chabang port, south of Bangkok, showed on Tuesday seven shipping containers each packed with about 22 tonnes of discarded electronics, including crushed game consoles, computer boards and bags of scrap materials.

 

Electronic refuse, or e-waste, is turning up from Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, police said, some of it imported by companies without the required permits.

 

"This ... shows that electronic waste from every corner of the world is flowing into Thailand," Deputy Police Chief Wirachai Songmetta said as he showed the containers to the media.

 

While "e-waste" — defined as any device with an electric cord or battery - can be "mined" for valuable metals such as gold, silver and copper, it can include hazardous material such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

 

Police said they filed charges against three recycling and waste processing companies in Thailand. Anyone found guilty could be jailed for up to 10 years.

 

"The companies that we have filed charges against don't have a quota to import even a single ton of electronic waste," Wirachai said.

 

China imposed a ban on overseas trash last year, telling the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it would stop accepting imports on 24 types of foreign waste, leading some to fear that the waste could end up in neighbouring countries.

 

The ban has upended the world's waste handling supply chain and caused massive pile-ups of trash from Asia to Europe, as exporters struggled to find new buyers for the garbage.

 

According to estimates in China's state media last year, more than 70 percent of the world's 500 million tonnes of electronic waste entered China in 2016.

 

Environmentalists say waste once destined for China is being re-routed to Southeast Asia, and new laws are needed or existing laws better enforced to prevent illegal imports.

 

"Especially after China's ban, Thailand could become one of the biggest dumping grounds for e-waste," said Penchom Saetang, director of Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand (EARTH).

 

Thailand ratified in 1997 the Basel Convention, which aims to control trans-boundary movements of hazardous waste. But the convention does not completely prohibit these exports from more developed to less developed countries.

 

"The Basel Convention cannot prevent what is happening in Thailand because it has its limitations," Penchon said in calling for an amendment that would ban these shipments.

 

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha vowed this week to step up nationwide inspections as part of a plan to combat illegal electronic waste. But environmentalists say they have not seen the details of how it will work.

 

"It isn't clear how he will do this," said Penchom.

 

(Reporting by Amy Lefevre and Juarawee Kittisilpa; Additionnal reporting by Athit Perawongmetha; Editing by Darren Schuettler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-30

[OmarZaid]

21 hours ago, Yann55 said:

 

Words fail me ....

 

I wonder when Thai people will begin to realize how the Chinese (and not only from the mainland) really see them and their country. How they consider it to be their backyard, vassal state, garbage dump, cheap labor reservation, and cheap fun playground.

 

If Thais weren't so busy focusing on blaming farangs for anything that goes wrong here, they would perhaps start to see who's really, deeply and inexorably making fools of them.

 

I also wonder when the non-Chinese Thai people will realize how much the sino-Thais despise them, their skin color, their lack of wealth and their beliefs, even though these sino-Thais were born here and are Thai nationals.

 

This situation bears a very nasty resemblance with what Europe was like before the French revolution : a bunch of arrogant aristocrats held all the power and the wealth just because they were born in the right families, thought themselves generous when they threw a few crumbs at the poor, and believed in all honesty that they were superior beings.

 

In that context and for centuries, the poor bowed their heads, despised themselves, sought solace in religion (which was controlled by the rich and powerful), died young, and did their best not to 'think too much'.

 

And one day... the pressure-cooker went "BOOM"!.

 

 

Here, Here!  Chinese are the Jews of the East eh?

[klauskunkel]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand is new dumping ground for world's high-tech trash, police say

is that a complaint, or an achievement?

[Borzandy]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand is new dumping ground for world's high-tech trash, police say

Very soon Thailand will be number one.

[bluesofa]

Just now, Borzandy said:

18 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand is new dumping ground for world's high-tech trash, police say

Very soon Thailand will be number one.

Ha ha, very good!

 

[1337markus]

Another new hub to add to the list of hubs.

[manchega]

like the thai police could actually sniff something out unless someone is pointing at it, its got a couple of k facebook likes and bill gates has mentioned it in passing

[PerkinsCuthbert]

4 hours ago, OmarZaid said:

Here, Here!  Chinese are the Jews of the East eh?

Where, where?

[stud858]

I wish my plastic Chinese made items would last a million years.  I dispute the 1 million years. Their plastics break and decompose within years.

[Redline]

So, who was paid to look the other way as thousands of tons of toxic trash entered the country?  Those people are responsible, and should serve hard time in prison