Thailand’s Customs Department is making greater efforts to prevent the illegal importation of e-waste. That turbo-charged campaign follows months after Customs officials seized a jaw-dropping 256 tons of e-waste at a port in eastern Thailand. This import, found in January, contained waste from Japan and Hong Kong. SAFE officials confiscated an additional 238 tons of U.S. based electronic waste. This intervention happened at the Thai port of Bangkok.
The illegal e-waste weighed 16 tons and was hidden inside ten large wooden crates that were misidentified as mixed metal scrap on shipping documents. On closer inspection, authorities discovered that the state’s containers contained the circuit boards hidden deep inside a massive amount of metal shavings and scrap. Theeraj Athanavanich, director-general of the Customs Department, has expressed alarm. Officials are investigating at least two factories in the Samut Sakhon province that borders Bangkok that they believe illegally imported this toxic substance.
Poor handling of the electronic waste presents serious health and environmental dangers. In 2020, Thailand prohibited the import of certain types of e-waste. The country even added to this list in February 2023! Theeraj emphasized the importance of addressing this issue, saying, “It’s important that we take action on this kind of goods.”
Authorities have been laying charges against those involved, including their prosecution for making false declarations regarding imported goods and illegal importation of electronic waste. The federal government is now looking at plans to allow the waste to be re-exported to its country of origin.
The e-waste crisis is at a boiling point, with 62 million tons produced worldwide last year. Experts are estimating this number will skyrocket to 82 million tons by 2030. This increase is due to greater consumption and the acceleration of product life cycles. Even more alarming, just 22% of electronic waste was responsibly collected and recycled last year. 64% of U.S. experts agree that this figure will decrease to a mere 20% by the end of the decade. The reason for that rapid decline is a lack of repair choices, compounded by poor management infrastructure.
“The environmental impacts are dangerous to the people, especially communities around factories that might import these things for processing, then recycling,” Theeraj warned.
Amid rising public concerns about the unprecedented crisis of e-waste, Thai authorities are beginning to assert their own control and escalate their efforts against illegal imports. They work hard to safeguard community residents’ health. In the process, they do the hard work of protecting our environment from the disastrous effects of unregulated e-waste recycling.
