Several environmental management laws which prohibit illegal
waste dumping and also give full responsibility to local administrations
in developing ordinances and regulating solid waste management
systems including collection fees in Thailand. One of
these is the 1992 Environmental Protection Act (Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment of Thailand, 2007; Thongkaimook,
2005). A National Integrated Waste Management Plan also exists
for Thailand. The plan is focused on the sustainable consumption
of natural resources and the application of the ‘cradle to cradle’
concept, including control of waste generation at sources, increased
waste separation to facilitate recycling and enhancement
of waste utilization efficiently prior to final disposal; and a reduction
by 30% of total waste generated by 2009 (Thongkaimook,
2005). To make the law more effective, the Government also aims
to promote the private sector’s role in research and development
for the recycling of raw materials and clean technologies; and discourage
the importation of industrial waste. In addition to this,
Thailand’s energy strategy and policy makes a provision for the
integration of recycling into the energy conservation plan. One of
the key objectives of this plan is to achieve a national recycling
target of 50% by the year 2008 (Energy Research Institute, 2000).
To enhance the successful implementation of these plans, in the
context of construction waste management, it is also necessary
that an assessment of the volume and characteristics of construction
waste being generated in the country be conducted as the
information obtained for such a study could be a vital input for
analyzing the feasibility of wide-scale construction waste recycling
in Thailand.