Mr. Athapol Charoenshunsa, Director General of Pollution Control Department (PCD) revealed that in the past, there were fire incidents, most of which happened in plastic product and pellet factories and plastic recycling plants, such as: Mingty Chemical Co., Ltd. fire disaster in King Kaew, Samut Prakarn; Emstrade Co., Ltd. fire in Sai Mai, Bangkok; and the latest fire in recycling plant of Plus Prosper Co., Ltd. in Rayong. From data record of PCD, there were 24 fire incidents a plastic product factories in the period from 2017 to 2021, 10 fire incidents occurred in 2021. In most cases, fire spread rapidly and was very difficult to control and causing damage to the environment and affecting public health of the surrounding communities of Plastic and initial substance.caused good fuel, inflammable, high heating and difficult to control and firefighting. The main causes of fires are:
Mr. Athapol said that the Regional Environmental Offices 1 – 16 will be responsible for another countrywide “plastic factory x-ray” in order to have strict enforcement of law and and prevent reoccurrences of fire and to prevent illegal import of plastic waste according to the policy of the Minister of MNRE (H.E. Varawut Silpa-archa). We also plan to prepare for discussions with relevant agencies to get lessons learned from those fire incidents at plastic factory.as well as set up guidelines and measures for inspection and supervision to prevent and reduce the severity of impacts on life and property and public health
Today, PCD has inspected SSRT Plastic Intergroup Co., Ltd.’s plastic factory in Praeksa, Samut Prakarn according to complaints about odors from melting plastics. Factory produces recycled plastic pellets from scrap plastics, and has completed its improvement of air treatment system according to the order of Samut Prakarn Provincial Industrial Office. Currently, it is under inspection for the charge against it in administrative court asking for compensation of the incidents. PCD will coordinate with other authorities for legal action, Mr. Athapol said.