Thailand mulls to promulgate law on electronic garbage management

BANGKOK, September 11 (TNA) - Parties concerned in Thailand are pushing for the promulgation of a new law on the management of rising electronic garbage in the country, namely dumped cell phones and other electronic and electrical devices. The concerned parties, therefore, joined a brainstorming session in Bangkok on Thursday, organized by Bangkok-based Chulalongkorn University's Environmental Research Institute and the Pollution Control Department's Waste and Hazardous Substances Management Bureau under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, aimed to handle dumped electrical and electronic products, the amounts of which have been growing and raising public concerns. The participants learned that there was only a small number of plants which could sort and grind dumped electronic devices in Thailand and their capacities were far from catching up with the rapidly growing amount of electrical and electronic garbage. So far, 35 countries worldwide have passed and imposed laws governing the disposal of their electrical and electronic garbage and participants in the brainstorming session agreed that Thailand urgently needs such the law now. The Department of Industrial Works reported, meanwhile, that the number of dumped electronic devices has kept growing by 10 per cent annually, with over 20 million items dumped nationwide last year alone. The lion's share has come from 9.2 million cell phones, followed by 3.3 million audio-visual players, 2.5 million televisions, 2 million computers, 1.5 million printers and faxes, 700,000 cameras, 700,000 air-conditioners and 800,000 refrigerators. (TNA)