Thailand has one of the most beautiful beaches in the world from Hua Hin to Phuket, they are one of the main tourist attractions. However, the ocean is suffering from neglectful tourists leaving trash behind on the beach and locals dumping trash into the ocean. It is estimated that most of the Thai marine waste is plastics. Thai government statistics, the waste is composed of: plastic debris (12%), Styrofoam boxes (10%), food wrappers (8%), plastic bags (8%), glass bottles (7%), plastic bottles (7%), and straws (5%).

Strewn on Thai beaches and floating in the ocean, this plastic waste floats across borders, joining other countries’ marine debris, creating vast garbage patches on oceans which is harming marine ecosystems. This can include suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of marine species. Marine wildlife such as seabirds, whales, fish and turtles mistake plastic waste for prey; most then die of starvation as their stomachs become filled with plastic. These problems prompted global discussion and efforts to combat plastic pollution – now one of the world’s top environmental problems.

Marine pollution in Thailand, stems primarily from the mismanagement of waste and consumer carelessness. According to the Ocean Conservancy, Thailand produces 27.8 million tons of waste a year. About 7.19% or 2 million tons of this waste is from local communities, including those along the coasts and by the rivers. This creates a problem for underprivileged, remote and vulnerable communities who are neglected to take care of this crisis on their own. They have to clean plastic waste from the ocean and beaches even though they are lacking tools and resources to manage their waste. They also lack waste-management infrastructures such as garbage bins and garbage trucks to collect the waste. To add to that, the government disregards the poor and waste mismanagement which eventually forms a hard-to-break community habit of throwing away garbage in the waterways and into the sea.