The Regional Resource Centre for Asia and the Pacific at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT RRC.AP), together with Nonthaburi Municipality and ERIA Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris (ERIA RKC-MPD), convened a capacity building workshop on preventing recycling-related plastic leakage on 14 August 2026 at the Grand Richmond Hotel, Nonthaburi. Held under the Capacity Building Programme for Reducing Recycling-Related Marine Plastic Pollution in ASEAN Cities (CaRMPAC), the workshop brought together representatives from Nonthaburi Municipality and relevant local stakeholders to strengthen technical knowledge and practical skills for preventing plastic and pellet leakage from recycling operations into the environment.
The workshop opened with welcome remarks from Mr. Nipon Sakulweerawan, Vice Mayor of Nonthaburi City, who highlighted the city's growing waste management challenges amid rapid economic and social growth, and expressed hope for a productive workshop. Dr. Guilberto Borongan, Director of AIT RRC.AP, delivered opening remarks noting that plastic leakage risks persist across every stage of the recycling process, from handling and sorting to final disposal. Mr. Keitaro Tsuji, Director of ERIA RKC-MPD, joined virtually to deliver opening remarks, citing Nonthaburi's high volume of municipal waste and stressing that even small losses at recycling facilities, repeated across time, can add to significant pollution.
Mr. Surachai Pienpairoj, Acting Director of Nonthaburi's Environmental and Health Services Division, presented the municipality's current solid waste management scenario, including its Nakornnont Zero Waste programme, waste bank initiative, and efforts to formalize the city's junk shops and informal saleng waste collectors. Technical sessions delivered by AIT RRC.AP and ERIA RKC-MPD covered the scale of regional plastic pollution, the value-chain sources of leakage, best practices and policy measures for recycling facilities, and behavioral change approaches for reducing plastic use.
Participants took part in a solution-mapping exercise, tracing how plastic is lost at each stage of the saleng and junk shop value chain and proposing measures such as fixed waste collection time, source-level segregation, and registration of informal collectors into a formal system. The open discussion that followed ranged widely: participants discussed whether reducing plastic production or strengthening waste management systems should take priority, examined how incentive schemes differ between rural and urban communities, and weighed the practicalities of bringing Nonthaburi's saleng collectors into a regulated framework given limited enforcement capacity. Several participants pointed to enforcement and public segregation habits as areas needing more attention, while others raised wastewater discharge from recycling facilities as an overlooked source of microplastic pollution.
The workshop forms part of CaRMPAC's rollout across 12 cities in five ASEAN Member States, building on Phase 1 guidelines developed in 2022–2023. The programme is recognized by the ASEAN Working Groups on Chemicals and Waste and on Coastal and Marine Environment and continues AIT RRC.AP's work with ERIA RKC-MPD and the ASEAN Secretariat to strengthen the capacity of recyclers and local government officers across the region to prevent plastic leakage into marine environments.
