Thailand's leading petroleum firm joins "green move"

BANGKOK, December 21 (TNA) - Bangchak Corporation Public Company Limited (BCP), a leading Thai petroleum firm, has agreed to work together with two other private partners to launch a "green move" to help reduce the massive plastic garbage in the country. BCP Chief Executive Officer (CEO and President Chaiwat Kovavisarach announced in Bangkok on December 20 that BCP has signed the agreement with SCG Chemicals Co., Ltd. and Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited on the joint "green move", under which drinking water bottles and lubricating oil gallons made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) will be recycled through an innovative processing system based on the concept of the circular economy. Chaiwat told journalists that at least one million PET drinking water bottles and 10 million PET lube oil gallons have been set to be recycled each year under the tripartite joint move in order to reduce the plastic garbage in Thailand at the equivalent amounts yearly. According to the BCP top executive, the joint "green move" has been inspired by an updated official report, released recently by the Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's Department of Environmental Quality Promotion, which indicates that there have been up to about 2 million tons of plastic garbage in the country a year over the past decade, only about 500,000 tons of which have been renewable. The BCP top executive said that initially, used PET drinking water bottles and lube oil gallons will be collected at 100 Bangchak gas stations in Bangkok and its peripheral provinces, inviting the public to leave their used PET drinking water bottles and lube oil gallons at the filling stations. The BCP top executive revealed that more used PET drinking water bottles and lube oil gallons will be collected at additional 100 Bangchak filling stations in the country next year, acknowledging that revenues from the joint "green move" will go to public organizations for national benefits. To support people's celebrations of the upcoming New Year Festival in Thailand, the BCP top executive told reporters, meanwhile, that retail fuel prices at all Bangchak filling stations nationwide will be unchanged during December 27, 2018-January 3, 2019. (TNA)