Thailand Takes a Step Toward Circularity: Stakeholders Chart Financing Pathways for Sustainable Waste Management

This pioneering initiative aims to introduce a framework that integrates financial planning with environmental policy, enabling a more strategic and cross-sectoral response to challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, fragmented responsibilities, and limited local budgets. It focuses on empowering local governments to explore alternative financing schemes, creating more resilient, inclusive and scalable solutions for sustainable waste management.

According to the National Pollution Control Department, Thailand generated 27 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2023, underscoring the urgency for reform. Persistent issues—ranging from inadequate infrastructure and limited financing to weak public participation—continue to strain the system. A 2023 PAGE stocktaking study also revealed critical gaps in local public finance, with insufficient resources and technical capacity at decentralized levels impeding improvements in waste collection, segregation, and treatment.

Against this backdrop, the consultation provided a platform for knowledge-sharing and dialogue among more than 100 participants from government agencies, the private sector, academia, civil society, and international organizations including the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Public Health, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), the Board of Investment (BOI), SCG, Bangchak Corporation, and NGOs such as the Thailand Environment Institute (TEI) and Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Wants (EnLAW).

Discussions centered on the need to bridge financial and governance gaps and to ensure sustainable waste management across Thailand. Recommendations emphasized revising Thailand’s National Solid Waste Management Strategy (2026–2030), enforcing mandatory waste separation at source, introducing Pay‑As‑You‑Throw (PAYT) schemes, strengthening Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks, and mobilizing innovative financing instruments such as green bonds, public‑private partnerships (PPP), and carbon market tools.

Recommendations gathered will feed into a draft report to be reviewed in November by the PAGE Subcommittee on Financing Mechanisms for Sustainable Waste Management, which brings together key government agencies overseeing waste and finance policies. This review will feed into a broader consultation process that also includes a second subcommittee meeting to finalize the findings, followed by a parliamentary advocacy dialogue and a public discourse session to share the outcomes more widely.

The results from this national process will also inform UNIDO’s pilot waste mobile application in Rayong Municipality and support advocacy efforts with the Ministry of Interior under the same thematic area.

By fostering collaboration, evidence-based policymaking, and financial innovation, the workshop reaffirmed PAGE’s role in supporting Thailand’s green economy transition, thereby helping the nation move closer to achieving a sustainable, inclusive, and circular waste management system.