Identification of Key Activities Contributing to Macro Plastic Waste Flows on the Shoreline of Koh Chang, Thailand : A Quantification of Macroplastic Waste Items

Sammanfattning: Sustainable development is vital in order for Thailand to continue to develop as in previous years. However, sustainable development cannot be achieved if the amount of macroplastic littering into the oceans does not decrease. In order to facilitate future decision making regarding this issue, this report aims to identify which human activities that contribute the most to the present macroplastic waste items on Thai shorelines. This identification was performed through a simplified material flow analysis based on observations and simple calculations on the island Koh Chang in Ranong. A comparative study was performed on the dissimilar island Koh Larn in Pattaya in order to eliminate any error factors caused by the specific environment on Koh Chang. It was deduced that Grocery Consumption, Fishing and Dining were the Key Activities on the two islands that contributed to the present macroplastic waste. Tourism was also shown to be a great contributor. The study did not find any signs of a current Rate of Accumulation on Koh Chang. However, there were always macroplastic waste items present in the sampling areas which implies that they might pose a threat to the ecosystems. Further research is needed in order to find a suitable solution for this problem.