CHONBURI: Natural Resources and Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa has ordered an importer to ship 130 tonnes of goods classified as waste back to Australia.
Atthapol Charoenchansa, director-general of the Pollution Control Department (PCD), told the press Minister Varawut issued the order after a joint inspection by his agency and Customs found that a recent Inter Pacific Paper Co. Ltd. imported goods contained “municipal waste” and not, as stated by the company, waste paper.
The two departments jointly inspected Inter Pacific Paper shipments at the Laem Chabang deep sea port in Chonburi province on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand on Wednesday.
Inter Pacific Paper had declared that the goods were “recycled mixed paper” with customs code 4704.90.00.
However, officials from the two departments opened all the containers and found they contained pieces of waste paper mixed with other trash items, including cloth bags, food containers, face masks, napkins, aerosol cans and ziplock bags for medicines, according to Khun Atthapol.
He said that 20 to 30 percent of the paper waste consisted of other items, so the shipment was classified by customs as municipal waste under customs code 3825.10.00.
Khun Atthapol said goods with the code 3825.10.00 cannot be imported, nor can they be transhipped via Thailand.
According to Khun Atthapol, Minister Varawut, who chairs the Plastics and Electronic Waste Disposal Committee, has ordered authorities to take legal action against Inter Pacific Paper for importing banned goods.
Khun Atthapol added that the PCD will coordinate with Customs to instruct the importer to send the containers back to the country of origin as soon as possible.
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