Stopping landfills has therefore been seen as a solution for reducing health and environmental threats caused by decaying rubbish, although the argument “where else can we put it?” has made the task a difficult one.
A project at Hua Hin, in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, is providing one answer with a surprising technology that turns plastic waste into crude oil. The project is called the Polymer Energy Site.
Playing a principal role is Santivipa Phanichkul, managing director of Single Point Energy and Environment (SPEE) and vice president of Napamit Global Warming Academy, Thailand (NGAT). She was instrumental in bringing polymer energy technology to Hua Hin to make use of plastic waste there.
Santivipa said the large number of landfills in Thailand was worsening global warming and damaging the environment because they released greenhouse gases, including methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide.
The Department of Groundwater Resources had also warned that groundwater in areas near landfills in several provinces was contaminated by hazardous chemicals, including lead, mercury and manganese.
“In Thailand, there are many unsanitary landfills damaging the environment. Local administration organisations don’t know how to provide sanitary ones.
“So, I decided to work with Hua Hin municipality to get rid of waste. We aim to promote the Polymer Energy Site as a good model of zero waste management for other municipalities to adopt, so that they will start proper rubbish management, and if possible, they will create their own sites,” she said.
SPEE provides the technology to produce crude oil from plastic waste in the form of a depolymerisation machine, while the municipality has provided 160 rai (25.6 hectares) of land for the project, near the landfill.
The municipality estimates there is 400,000 tonnes of rubbish buried in the landfill. About 10 per cent of the buried rubbish, or 40,000 tonnes, is plastic waste. Residents and tourists to Hua Hin produce 80 to 100 tonnes of rubbish per day.
According to Santivipa, one kilogram of plastic waste can produce at least 600 grams of crude oil. This crude oil can then be distilled to split it into usable fractions, 20 per cent petrol, 50 per cent diesel and the rest, heavy fractions.
Santivipa said she was “mining” the landfill to dig up the buried rubbish to provide raw material for the production of crude oil. Organic waste produced when the plastic was separated out would be used to produce organic fertiliser. There would be a laboratory at the site to monitor the quality of the oil and the fertiliser and a learning centre to disseminate know-how from the project to other local administration organisations and interested people.
So far 60,000 tonnes of rubbish has been dug from the municipality’s landfill to produce oil.
Completely setting up the project will cost about Bt350 million. The learning centre will cost a further Bt40 million.
SPEE’s parent company, Single Point Parts (Thailand) will invest in the project and it is considering partnership with other companies. Meanwhile, Santivipa said she and NGAT would form the learning centre and were seeking sponsors.
“Everything will be completed by the end of next year, when the whole system will be running,” she said.
Officials from the Thailand Institute of Packing and Recycling Management for a Sustainable Environment (TIPMSE) and Unilever Thai Trading visited the Polymer Energy Site recently to learn about the project.
TIPMSE director Yuthtapong Wattanalapa said the institute would draw on years of experience in recycling projects with communities, universities and rubbish collectors to provide knowledge about recycling to the proposed learning centre.
Unilever’s communications director Pongtip Thesaphu said she would propose to the company that it consider supporting the learning centre.
“We produce a huge volume of rubbish from our products’ packaging, so we must make Thais aware of rubbish separation and reduction. We have undertaken several projects, helping to reduce and recycle rubbish. But we will try to do more. If we support this centre, it will teach people about good rubbish management,” she said.
Anyone interested in supporting the establishment of the learning centre at Hua Hin should call NGAT at (02) 598 2337-8.