Thailand is a new dumping ground for scrap electronics from around the world, police and environmentalists said, the latest nation to feel the impact of China’s crackdown on imports of high-tech trash.
Police at Laem Chabang port, south of Bangkok, on Tuesday showed seven shipping containers each packed with about 22 tonnes of discarded electronics, including crushed game consoles, computer circuit boards and bags of scrap material.
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.
Photo: Reuters
“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 also include hazardous materials 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 tonne of electronic waste,” Wirachai said.
China imposed a ban on overseas trash last year, telling the WTO that it would stop accepting imports of 24 types of foreign waste, leading some to fear that the waste could end up in neighboring nations.
The ban has upended the world’s waste handling supply chain and caused massive pileups of trash from Asia to Europe, as exporters struggled to find new buyers for the garbage.
Chinese state media last year estimated that 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 rerouted to Southeast Asian nations 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,” Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand director Penchom Saetang said.
Thailand in 1997 ratified the Basel Convention, which aims to control movements of hazardous waste, but the convention does not completely prohibit these exports from more developed to less developed nations.
“The Basel Convention cannot prevent what is happening in Thailand because it has its limitations,” Penchon said while calling for an amendment that would ban the shipments of e-waste.
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,” Penchom said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was