E-JUNK: Loophole in dumping law ‘hurts public’

Thailand has become a waste basket for the world's electronics junk, with at least 100 containers of used gadgets stored at Bangkok's Klong Toei port with no registered owners, according to a senior official with the Pollution Control Department (PCD).

Sophon Tatichotphan, a director of the PCD's Hazardous Substances and Waste Management Office, said the hi-tech garbage comprised second-hand products imported with the help of "some dubious Thai businessmen".

He said these people set up legal firms in Bangkok, then upon arrival the used electronics simply sat at the port's storage site while the listed importers became untraceable or declared bankruptcy.

"It's a loophole in the Thai law that states that goods stored at the port for more than 60 days automatically become government property.

The problem is this junk needs proper treatment to protect the environment and, of course, the public," he said.

Exporting electronics waste to developing countries is a normal practice on the part of many foreign companies whose own national laws on disposal are strictly enforced to protect public health, the PCD official explained.

"Thailand is among the countries lacking or failing to enforce laws to ban this dumping, so we're a target of these dubious businesses," Sophon said.

"Worse, Thailand has yet to ratify the Basel Convention, which is an international treaty demanding that signatories ban the movement of discarded electronics and other hazardous wastes. If we were a member of the convention, we could send back the waste containers to the countries of origin and claim compensation."

Recent spot checks at five junk-container stations turned up old computers and other electronic equipment, along with old vehicle tyres, all of which are defined as illegal imports.

"The only thing we can do with this stuff is send it to a treatment plant," Sophon said.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Prapat Panyachatraksa said he had ordered one of his deputy permanent secretaries to update the reports for him.