Recycle more to save our country

The average Thai dustbin is an ecologist's nightmare, stuffed with valuable material that could be recycled to make new products. This would save on raw materials, create fewer greenhouse gas emissions than incineration and help reduce climate change and the problems caused by burying waste.

'Waste disposal in landfills or by incineration is an admission of failure,' says a researcher. 'So is wasted organic matter, such as peelings and food scraps. This should be composted and made available free to farmers.'

There are many routes to zero waste other than via our dustbins, but the fact that we all have them should make them an immediate concern, alongside the establishment of more recycling depots and using less packaging.
Do you know that the recycling of just one plastic Pepsi, Coca Cola, or any other soda bottle conserves enough energy to power a 60-Watt light bulb for around six hours.... At our house we drink on average 2 bottles a day, that is a 84 hours of 60 Watt....

While landfills are toxic melting pots of chemicals and explosive methane gas, this is one noxious cloud that does have a silver lining. At 220 times denser than carbon dioxide, methane is a serious global-warming culprit. But it is also a potentially valuable source of alternative energy. So far, this is being tapped only for experimental research. Tapping methane from some of Thailand huge landfills, even the City of Bangkok produces more waist then some smaller Western countries, we could expect to produce 1000kW of electricity per landfill.