BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): The Interior Ministry has partnered with its Ladies Association, Kasikornbank Pcl, and the UN Thailand to pilot the country’s first carbon credit trading from garbage in four provinces, the ministry’s permanent-secretary Suttipong Juljarern said on Thursday (June 22).
Specialised garbage bins that can turn household garbage into carbon credits for local villages and communities have been built in Lamphun, Samut Songkhram, Loei and Amnat Charoen.
The credit trading rate is set at 260 baht per tonne of carbon in the first phase.
The ministry aims to expand the project to 22 more provinces in the next phase and is expecting to trade at least 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, he said.
Suttipong added that the project has been in the preparation phase for almost ten years as a cooperative effort with partners and provincial administration organisations.
“Lamphun gave birth to the project’s idea as the province has been employing waste separation protocol at most social events,” he said. “For example, during religious festivals, attendees are encouraged to collect food waste in a separate location with leaves and general waste.”
Locals then dump the garbage in a ‘sawian’, a bamboo fenced pit around a tree to turn the waste, which is mixed with falling leaves, into fertiliser.
Suttipong said the sawian has become a prototype for a specialised garbage bin co-developed by Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation and Chulalongkorn University’s Department of Environmental Engineering. The bin is capable of calculating carbon credit from the garbage it collects.
Meanwhile, Kasikornbank will help in credit trading as well as organise campaigns to urge people to use the bin to turn their garbage into money.
Kbank executive director Krit Jitjang said that the project aligns with the bank’s commitment to climate change efforts and to turn Thailand into a zero-carbon emission society.
