Thailand’s Natural Resources and Environment Crime Division (NRECD) will take over, from Phachi district police, the investigation into a chemical recycling company in Ayutthaya province, accused of dumping industrial waste at an old warehouse and in nearby areas.
Pitaya Pramotvoraphan, deputy director-general of Pollution Control Department, said that the warehouse had been used by Aek Uthai, a chemical recycling company, to store industrial waste instead of recycling it.
About 50 tonnes of industrial waste in plastic and iron barrels and big bags were found stored in the 1.25 hectare compound when officials from the Pollution Department and Industrial Works Department, NRECD police and other officials inspected the facility. Industrial waste was also found dumped in a pit and covered with soil and used wire outside the warehouse.
Pitaya said that officials from the Industrial Works Department have already filed a complaint with Phachi district police against the owner of the warehouse and have ordered the owner to move all the industrial waste out of the facility for proper disposal or recycling.
He said that the warehouse’s owner had given evidence to the police that the chemical waste stored there belongs to the Aek Uthai recycling company.
He also said that, apart from the NRECD, a committee has been set up, with the Ayutthaya governor as its chair, to tackle the problem of industrial waste in the province.
It is reported that the recycling company has removed the waste from a ditch outside the warehouse and placed canvas sheets on the floor of the warehouse to catch any leaks from the containers. Lime was also used to cover the pit where some of the waste had been buried.
