**1.** Reduce and separate waste at household sources

Reducing waste at source is a simplified methodology to save costs and natural resources. It represents a sound business concept as well as encouraging social responsibility. If the entire country adopted source reduction practices, the pressure on natural resources would be significantly decreased. Several organizations and businesses have already recognized that source reduction and waste separation and recycling will result in financial savings and will yield an enhancement of productivity as well as promoting corporate social responsibility.

**2.** Apply a clustering waste management system using combination technologies with the emphasis on waste to energy (WTE) and maximizing waste recovery

In order to centralize waste management systems, each province should aggregate SWM based on district and sub-district clustering taking into consideration the amount and condition of waste. The waste treatment pattern should be divided into three levels as follows:


Under the M and L models waste would be processed by the following procedures:

• Promote the separation of waste at source.

Further regulations relating to this national agenda on SWM were announced by the office of the PM in the form of an act of parliament, published in the royal gazette, in September 2014 [10]. Under the decentralization strategy adopted, responsibility for SWM was passed to each province under the authority of the provincial governor in collaboration with the MNRE, who will provide back-up on technical and management issues to support the provincial administrations. At the beginning of the fiscal year 2015, the MNRE assigned national SWM policy to local provincial administrative and local government organizations in order to implement this policy [11]. The main concept of the national roadmap for solid and hazardous waste manage-

**1.** There will be no more open dumping and residual waste must be properly treated includ-

**2.** Survey and improve all illegal and improper landfills including both sites within local

To comply with the national waste management roadmap, the following steps should be

• Dispose of waste in private areas or convert it to refuse derived fuel (RDF) and promote

Reducing waste at source is a simplified methodology to save costs and natural resources. It represents a sound business concept as well as encouraging social responsibility. If the entire country adopted source reduction practices, the pressure on natural resources would be significantly decreased. Several organizations and businesses have already recognized that source reduction and waste separation and recycling will result in financial savings and will yield an enhancement of productivity as well as promoting corporate

**2.** Apply a clustering waste management system using combination technologies with the

In order to centralize waste management systems, each province should aggregate SWM based on district and sub-district clustering taking into consideration the amount and condition of waste. The waste treatment pattern should be divided into three levels as follows:

emphasis on waste to energy (WTE) and maximizing waste recovery

• Survey and assess landfills with a view to closing or rehabilitating them.

• Enforce the law in relation to the operation of private illegal dumping sites.

ment is divided into four categories;

ing urgently removing it from landfills

administrative control and private sites

• Renovate existing landfills to render them sanitary.

private investment in waste treatment technologies.

**1.** Reduce and separate waste at household sources

*2.1.1. Residual waste*

220 Advances in Biofuels and Bioenergy

*2.1.2. Emerging waste*

social responsibility.

applied:


Under model S the same processes would be operated as those under models M and L but a different approach to waste recovery would be adopted with composting being utilized instead of electricity generation at small scale sites and employing private contractors for hazardous waste management instead of landfill rehabilitation.

**3.** Reinforce the role of the private sector in waste management and increase investment especially in waste incinerators

#### *2.1.3. Waste management measures and policy*

**1.** Henceforth, governors are the provincial regulatory waste management administrators

**2.** Legislation to introduce and standardize procedures including waste reduction, separation, collection and transportation, and, to standardize waste disposal fees for solid, hazardous and infectious waste

The roadmap focuses on policy and legislation while the practical implementation of measures on waste management have been decentralized to provincial administration organizations in three stages.

In the first stage covering a period of 6 months, governors meet with provincial waste management committees selected from related stakeholders e.g., local administration representatives, academics, NGOs and the private sector, to brainstorm and discuss SWM with a view to drafting a provincial solid and hazardous waste management model. From this an overview of the implementation of the provincial SWM model is prepared incorporating an assessment of local preparedness and how collaboration between all the stakeholders can systematically and sustainably resolve the waste problem. The provincial waste management committee also plays an important role in the selection of alternative waste technologies at a centralized waste disposal site selected depending on the size of their area and the likely inputs of waste. It is also important to deal with political issues which may arise during the bidding process for concessions and to ensure that this process is transparent and fair.

Additionally, governors have authorization to adopt a flexible approach where necessary, for example, in conducting environmental impact assessments (EIA), allowing joint ventures between private companies and government organizations under the Government Business Act (2013), the City Plan Act (1975), and the Environmental and Safety Assessment Act (ESA, 2009), as well as adopting measures to support private sector investment in solid and hazardous waste management.

In addition, provincial administration organizations have the authority to pass local regulations to set up, operate, control, and monitor waste disposal sites. These regulations may also cover waste separation (general waste, organic waste, recyclable waste, and hazardous waste) and the prohibition of the mixing of hazardous waste with general MSW.

Following this initial period, there follows an intermediate period of a year during which the policy highlights the disposal of products and packaging material which may include permitting the use of waste disposal sites and the disposal of electric appliances and electronic waste under pilot projects involving the extended producer responsibility (EPR) principle. Recycling of packaging material will be enforced in industrial sectors and measures will be taken to prevent illegal dumping of hazardous wastes. Waste treatment plants, disposal sites and recycling plants will be progressively introduced where they do not already exist and their use will be promoted. Local legislation relating to waste separation and the prohibition of the mixing of hazardous waste with MSW will also be enforced as well as other enactments to support the integrated solid and hazardous waste management program.

these issues should be promoted at every school and academic institution [6] and higher educational institutions should be requested to introduce youth awareness programs for the environment and waste management. Several schools have already adopted such waste management approaches. For instance, Benjamarachutit School, a public high school in Nakorn Sri Thammarat province, applied food waste from canteen to produce effective microorganisms used in the organic hydroponic culture of Chinese mustard greens in their agricultural learning area with both economic and environmental benefits [16]. Similarly, Boonpeng [17] noted that the Director of Baan Don Kha School, a small primary school in Si Sa Ket province, initiated a waste separation campaign in which students separated waste into four types; glass bottles, plastic bottles, milk pouches, and paper. These waste products are recycled or sold to provide revenue applied to school learning activities. Similarly, this primary school also taught their students to create value-added products from waste for daily utilization such

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June 5, 2015, was World Environment Day, and the PM chose that day to launch a plasticbag-free campaign to encourage Thai people to reduce the volume of trash they generate. In particular, the PM stated that the government would seek cooperation from retailers, convenience stores, department stores and shopping centers in avoiding the use of plastic bags on the 15th day of each month and instead to use cloth bags or to reuse plastic bags in order to reduce the volume of plastic waste. Meanwhile, the MNRE initiated the "Green Card" project

as making handbags from waste coffee pouches (**Figure 2**).

**Figure 2.** Handbags from coffee pouches [17].

**3. Modern holistic waste reduction and recovery policies**

In the longer term beyond that year, measures will tend to focus on international directives that will make producers responsible for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) at the end of its useful life [13] based on the EPR concept and the polluter pays principle (PPP). These strategies are designed to promote the integration of environmental costs of goods throughout their life cycle into the market price. Therefore, the duty to eliminate WEEE should be allocated to producers in order to encourage them to adopt sustainable production methods [14].
