Thailand striving to reduce plastic usage (Photo: AFP/VNA) Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand's Industry and Finance Ministries are using a newcorporate income tax reduction programme to encourage businesses to use morebiodegradable plastic products, in a move to reduce waste.
Industry Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit said the taxreduction amounts to around 25% of what companies paid to buy biodegradableplastic products between 2022 and 2024. The measure also supports the state'sbio-, circular and green (BCG) economic model.
BCG, which has been declared a national agenda item by the Prayut Chan-o-chaadministration, encourages manufacturers to adopt techniques that can add valueto products while also having little or no impact on the environment.
Minister Suriya said the tax reduction is aimed at helping the governmentreduce the usage of plastic materials, including single-use products. Companies,especially shopping mall operators and retailers, are among the government'smain targets as they use a large amount of plastic products.
Warawan Chitaroon, director-general of the Office of Industrial Economics, saidbusiness operators who want to join the tax reduction programme must buybiodegradable plastic products from manufacturers certified by the IndustryMinistry.
She added the ministry has so far certified seven companies, which have beengranted 72 licences on various biodegradable plastic products. The productsinclude plastic tubes, plastic garbage bags, single-use plastic bags, andplastic ziplock bags.
According to the Pollution Control Department,Thailand is ranked among the world's top 10 marine plastic debrispolluters. The country generates around 2 million tonnes of plastic wasteannually, but the country recycles only 25% of it.
The government launched a policy to ban single-use plastic bags in 2018, andstarted by asking retailers not to hand them out to shoppers from Jan 1, 2020.
However, the campaign was affected when Thailand went into lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic later that year. The work-from-home guidelines led to a boom in food deliveryservices, which subsequently required more plastic bags.
The development of biodegradable plastic materials, togetherwith the use of biochemical and biopharmaceutical technologies, is in line withthe government's plan to make Thailand a bio hub in ASEAN by 2027./.
