2020 Online Entrepreneurial Development Project with Digital Marketing Integration
01/03/2020
RMUTT producing organic vegetables, meeting EU Standards
04/03/2020
Thailand leading in global awareness of plastic waste (now accounting for 18% overall)
One of the surveys showed that Thai people were most aware of plastic waste compared to the world. The awareness of people was raised from different reasons including the loss of Thailand’s ‘sweetheart’ dugong which died with plastic clogging in its stomach, an air pollutant or fine particulate matter (PM2.5) which caused concern for Thai people’s health and finally ‘plastic waste’ that was adversely affecting the environment.
Environment under threat in Thailand causing concerns to its people
As the world’s 6th biggest plastic waste polluters, Thailand and its government had been attempting to take measures to stop plastic waste by drafting “A Roadmap to Plastic Waste Management 2018″. The agreement between entrepreneurs and government representatives had been reached on creating an “Everyday Saying No to Plastic Bag” project, a cooperative campaign participated by more than 70 retailers around the country had been launched since 1 January 2020 to raise awareness of the Thais on refusing to accept single-use plastic bags.
From the survey results of Kantar, a home to some of the world’s leading research, data and insights brands revealed that plastic waste was regarded as a major environmental issue for Thailand. As a number-one country in global awareness of plastic waste, Thailand was accounted for 18% of the total population higher than the world’s average percentage of 15%.
From the survey, 63% of Thai citizens revealed that plastic waste should be ranked as one of the top five environmental problems in Thailand and almost one-third believed that ‘we’ the people should be responsible for the problem. Thus, it was a great sign for Thailand to see its people taking the problem seriously and hoping to be the first step of solving world’s environmental problems.
Eco-Doer, “A new Eco-friendly trend”
According to a Kantar survey, 12% of the people in Thailand were “Eco-Doer” or those people who refuse to accept single-use plastic items (bags, straws, utensils, take-out containers, etc.) from stores but preferred to bring their own items.
However, the survey also indicated that the Eco-Doers would still buy products with plastic packaging. This could more or less be reflecting the impact of Eco-Doers’ behavior in purchasing plastic items had not been changed for the better. Consequently, it would be difficult for both the government and private sector to implement ways to change the consumers’ behavior regarding the consumption of plastic, particularly to really make them understand the true concept of ‘Green gap’. The concept was created to help consumers get themselves ready for lessening their use of plastic items by selecting only non-plastic ones in order to reduce the amounts of plastic waste. Taking everything into account, a real success depends on everyone’s ability to change.
Additionally, 35% of the survey respondents believed that “manufacturers” were the main jigsaw of solving plastic waste puzzles. By reducing the amount of plastic or changing packaging materials, it was expected that manufacturers as well as the consumers would be cooperatively responsible for solving this environmental problem.
Concerning the expectation of Thai people from the manufacturers, they hoped that the infrastructure of waste management such as waste sorting and waste elimination would truly be resolved through CSR agreement.
