Plastic Credits Might Solve the Waste Management Problem

FREMONT, CA: Despite the fact that Ranong is Thailand's least populous province, it faces a continual influx of plastic waste. Ranong's blue waters, like those of many other Thai coastal areas, are home to some of the 50,000 tonnes of plastic garbage that enter Thailand's seas each year. This amount does not include the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic that are imported into the country each year from other countries

Despite the fact that Ranong is Thailand's least populous province, it faces a continual influx of plastic waste. Ranong's blue waters, like those of many other Thai coastal areas, are home to some of the 50,000 tonnes of plastic garbage that enter Thailand's seas each year. This amount does not include the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic that are imported into the country each year from other countries.

However, a group of Ranong citizens have been intercepting plastic pollution on its way from the land to the sea since 2019. They collect 120 tonnes of plastic per year with the help of a social venture called Second Life Thailand, which is largely recycled into plastic chips to produce new products. Second Life then generates a plastic credit for each tonne of rubbish cleared from the environment, which it sells to other companies looking to offset their own waste impact.

The enterprise, which is located in Thailand, is now one of dozens of global waste collection and recycling initiatives that sell plastic credits. These credits, which follow the concepts of carbon emissions trading, allow businesses to indirectly address their own plastic pollution by paying projects to remove it from the environment, recycle it, or do both.