Page 23 - FoodFocusThailand No.168 March 2020

SAVE THE WORLD

From January 1, 2020, Thailand has begun a campaign to
ban single-use plastic bags under the Plastic Waste
Management Road Map 2018-2030 of the Pollution Control
Department. KResearch views that the ban will significantly
reduce the amount of single-use plastic bags. It will affect supply
chains of the plastic bag industry but create opportunities for
other substitute merchandise.
Around 45 billion single-use plastic bags were used
annually. KResearch estimates that during the initial stage, the
amount of single use plastic bags will be reduced by at least
29% or around 13 billion pieces because they are no longer
available in department stores, convenience stores, fresh
markets in regional cities and grocery stores in some locations.
The amount of single-use plastic bags is set to further drop at
least 64% or 29 billion pieces by 2022 when more businesses
in the fresh markets, private sectors, street vendors and grocery
stores join the campaign.
The decreasing plastic bag consumption affects operators
in the supply chains of both big operators and SMEs, and they
will need to brace for challenges. The government should help
them by launching measures to enable them to adapt to
changes during the transition period, especially the SMEs, in
terms of funding, marketing or technology.
However, since a grocery bag is a necessary item in the
consumers’ daily life, KResearch views that in 2020, the
economic impact from the reduction of single-use plastic bag
consumption will represent a gain of THB 2.191 billion because
it creates a business opportunity for eco-friendly substitutes to
replace single use plastic bags, especially thick plastic bags,
cloth plastic bags and cloth bags. It is expected that the demand
for these bags will reach 410 million pieces, translating into a
value of around THB 4.63 billion. In 2022, the overall single-use
plastic bag market is expected to fall to negative territory at
THB 295 million because these eco-friendly substitutes have
a longer useful life, hence decreasing frequency of purchases.
Although the net impact of the single-use plastic bag market
will contract in the future, the issues related to environmental
sustainability are far more important and cannot be evaluated
in monetary terms.

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