Thailand to ban import of plastic waste by 2025
On February 21, the Cabinet announced that Thailand will ban the import of all plastic waste by 2025. Plastic waste imported in 2023 and 2024 will be regulated. Plastic waste imports will be restricted to 14 recycling plants in the tax-free zone, which may not receive more than their combined production capacity of 372,995 tonnes of plastic waste in 2023. In the following year, plastic waste imported to these plants will be reduced to half of their combined production capacity. To be processed in areas outside the tax-free zone, importers of plastic waste must provide evidence of the necessity of imports for their production demand. Imported plastic waste must not be required to be cleaned in order to be used as a raw material in the production process.