Campaign aims to fight problem of plastic waste in coastal areas

They have been joined by the ECOALF Foundation in the project, “Upcycling The Oceans, Thailand”.
The project was launched on Wednesday at Central World in Bangkok by Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the TAT; Supattanapong Punmeechaow, president and chief executive of PTTGC; and Javier Goyeneche, founder and CEO of the ECOALF Foundation.
The project aims to tackle the problem of plastic waste in Thailand’s coastal and island tourist areas. It will also help improve Thailand’s image as a tourist destination concerned about environmental and social responsibility.
Yuthasak said, “Tourism is a key industry that brings revenue to the country. However, our competitiveness in tourism was recently ranked at No.35 according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). This reflects the challenging of Thailand’s tourism development
“ Several tourist destinations in Thailand are deteriorating due to environmental problems such as rubbish and wastewater pollution due to inefficient management. This is why the TAT, PTTGC, and the ECOALF Foundation are committed to improving tourist areas by creating a stakeholder collaboration network to give back to society while encouraging environmental sustainability.
“Together, we are implementing the ‘Upcycling The Oceans, Thailand’ project to address the issue of waste in Thailand’s coastal areas and islands through an innovation that offers great environmental value. The project needs the co-operation of related parties and will increase awareness about environmental protection among tourists and the public to help achieve sustainable tourism development and management.”
Supattanapong said: “The company is fully committed to growing its business in tandem with corporate social responsibility activities that benefit the community, society, and the environment, under the company’s ‘sustainable business’ concept.
“Through the Upcycling the Oceans, Thailand project, PTTGC wants to reduce the amount of waste in the seas around Thailand and rehabilitate shoreline areas currently covered with debris. The project will leverage the continued success of the company’s ‘Building Homes for Marine Animals’ project that promotes marine ecology in the coastal area of Rayong province.”
Goyeneche said: “Thailand is the first country in Asia where we decided to implement our ‘Upcycling the Oceans’ project in a strategic partnership with the TAT and PTTGC. The management of the entire process, from waste collection, through the transformation into raw material, and making clothing and fashion collections, will be completely done in Thailand.
“Another of the project’s aims is to raise awareness of the negative impact of improper waste disposal on the oceans. Currently, there is about 269,000 tonnes of plastic waste in the world’s oceans, representing around 2.25 trillion pieces of litter.”
The project will also focus on increasing awareness among stakeholders including tourists who want to volunteer to collect waste from the sea and coastal areas, as well as accurately separating plastic waste for recycling. 
Waste collection for the project will target areas on Thailand’s eastern seaboard including Koh Samet in Rayong province, Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand off Surat Thani province, and Phuket on the Andaman coast, all of which are popular tourist destinations. It is expected that the project will play a pivotal role in driving efforts to reduce the amount of debris found in the seas around Thailand in a sustainable manner.