The Rayong Provincial Court ordered the Win Process Company to pay 1.7 billion baht in compensation today, for the rehabilitation of the environment damaged by industrial waste leaked from the company’s storage facility since 2011.
The civil lawsuit was brought against Win Process by the Pollution Control Department (PCD), after it discovered that the company had breached the law by not recycling hazardous waste, but had discharged the waste into the environment instead, damaging farmland and contaminating natural watercourses.
According to the PCD, the hazardous waste was just kept at the Win Process facility in Village 4 in Bang But sub-district of Ban Khai district of Rayong. Some of the waste was even buried in and around the company’s compound.
Residents in communities around the company had been complaining to officials of the Industrial Works Department since 2013, about the contamination of their farmland and natural watercourses by waste leaking from the company, but to no avail.
It wasn’t until 2020 that the PCD stepped in to investigate. Then the company decided to close its facility in Village 4.
On July 21st, 2020, Win Process and its two directors were charged with possession of hazardous industrial waste without a permit. The two directors confessed and were fined by the court. Their prison terms were suspended.
The investigation by the PCD discovered that surface water around the company’s facility has high levels of acidity and lead contamination, the quality of underground water in 12 locations was below standard and a watercourse in a nearby rubber plantation was found to contain a high level of acidity.
Founded in 2010, Win Process engages in the business of sorting and recycling hazardous waste.
