[1] According to Interior Ministry statistics, refuse nationwide in 2016 amounted to 27 million tonnes, up about 0.7 percent from the previous year.
Wichan Simachaya, director-general of the PCD, said the volume of waste could continue to grow by 600,000 tonnes a year, due to increasing population and tourism.
[15] The country is a major contributor, along with China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka,[16] of up to 60% of plastic pollution in oceans.
[18] On 21 July 2018 the Thai government kicked off a campaign to reduce the use of foam containers and single-use plastic bags at fresh markets countrywide.
[19][20] Finally, a ban on single-use plastic bags with a thickness of less than 36 microns[21] at major retailers was enacted to take effect on 1 January 2020.
To make matters worse for the manufacturers, eight TV channels signed an agreement with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on 2 January 2020 to blur images and footage of single-use plastic bags on-screen, as is done in Thailand for firearms, cigarettes, and alcohol.
About half of this waste consists of "clean products": packaging, PVC bags for dialysis solution, and other non-infectious items that could potentially be recycled or upcycled.
In spite of the ban, new recycling factories have opened across Thailand, particularly in the eastern provinces, and tonnes of potentially hazardous e-waste are being processed.
In October 2019, the Thai legislature relaxed labour and environmental regulations for all factories, a boon to the e-waste industry.
An official of the Basel Action Network, which campaigns against dumping waste in poor countries, said, "E-waste has to go somewhere, and the Chinese are simply moving their entire operations to Southeast Asia.
The problem is that no user fees are assessed or collected and that households and firm [sic] are not required to connect to the systems.
[32]: 62 According to the United Nations Ocean Conference Thailand produces about 50.000 tonnes of solid waste that finds its way into the sea each year.
At one site, the Bangkok Post reported that, "Plastic bags, bottles, ropes, discarded noodle containers and even a rusty cooking appliance float in the water or are stuck in the mud under the green canopy.
"[34] The Thai Pollution Control Department (PCD) reports that the water quality of major rivers flowing into the upper Gulf of Thailand has seriously deteriorated in the past decade.
The department found the lower Chao Phraya River, which flows through Bangkok, contains bacteria and nutrient pollution from phosphates, phosphorus, and nitrogen.
Nutrient pollution causes algae to grow faster than ecosystems can handle, harming water quality, food resources for aquatic animals, and marine habitats.
PCD categorised water quality at the mouth of Chao Phraya at Bangkok's Bang Khun Thian District as "very poor" and worse than in 2014.
[32]: 56 PCD findings indicated large amounts of wastewater were discharged into the river from households, industry, and agriculture.