Veterinarians examine a dead deer found to have swallowed 7kg of plastic bags and other trash in Khun Sathan National Park in Thailand's Nan province. (Photo: AFP/Office of Protected Area Region 13)
Thailand’s government has banned the use of styrofoam packaging and single-use plastics from national parks in a move welcomed by environmentalists, citing the harm discarded plastic items have on many endangered animals.
The new ban prohibits visitors to national parks from carrying “plastic bags which are less than 36 microns, plastic food containers, cups, straws, and cutlery,” an official announcement said.
People who break the new ban will face a fine of up to 100,000 baht (US$3,000), according to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.
“This is a step in the right direction, but there is a long way to go before the harmful effects of plastic pollution on the environment are eliminated in Thailand,” Phloenta Saelim, a local conservationist, told UCA News.
Plastic waste left behind by visitors to national parks is frequently swallowed by deer, critically endangered Asian elephants and other animals, environmentalists say.
Once consumed, plastic items can disrupt these animals’ digestive system and cause potentially life-threatening conditions.
A couple of critically endangered dugongs, also known as sea cows, have died in recent years in southern Thailand after ingesting plastic waste along with seagrass, their primary food source
Elephants living in Khao Yai National Park, one of Thailand’s largest nature reserves, are known to have ingested plastic bags and packaging because evidence of this has been found in their dung, conservationist groups such as Greenpeace have said.
In 2020, supermarkets and department stores stopped handing out single-use plastic bags with purchases, but plastic packaging and other single-use objects remain ubiquitous.
At 7-Eleven convenience stores, even single bananas are wrapped in separate plastic bags, and plastic packaging is widespread with food items on sale in Thailand.
Much of the waste generated in the country remains unrecycled and often uncollected. A lot of it ends up in the environment including waterways and seas.
Along with other Southeast Asian nations such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, Thailand is one of the world’s top 10 biggest plastic polluters of the oceans where plastic waste, which can take up to 500 years to decompose, poses a threat to marine life.
A couple of critically endangered dugongs, also known as sea cows, have died in recent years in southern Thailand after ingesting plastic waste along with seagrass, their primary food source.
“Ocean plastic pollution is threatening humanity and Thailand cannot escape the blame as one of the world’s worst marine polluters,” the Ocean Conservancy environmentalist group says.
“Although the government has pledged to tackle marine pollution, one thing is certain. Success is out of reach if the state authorities fail to engage local communities as equal partners,” it adds.