Publication Code: N50
This study brings into focus the public policy issues surrounding industrial hazardous waste production and disposal in the Eastern Seaboard region, the site of much of Thailand's heavy and high-tech industrial development over the past decade. Specifically, the report addresses:
a) the present status of hazardous waste management in Thailand;
b) characteristics of industries in the Eastern Seaboard region, specifically those industries that generate hazardous wastes;
c) health problems that may be associated with environmental degradation in Thailand;
d) public environmental awareness and attitudes toward hazardous waste in Thailand; and
e) policy options for the Thai government.
Finally, this study emphasizes the potentially constructive role of the public in hazardous waste management. To date, the public has been considered an obstacle to the construction of the planned waste treatment plants so desperately needed in Thailand. However, as this study highlights, the potential for mobilizing the public into allies of the process of hazardous waste management definitely exists. In order to affect the public,however, the Thai government must reconsider its strategies for dealing with the Thai public by improving risk education and opening new lines of communication and introducing new forms of dialogue with the general public.
February 1995