Thai Scrap Dealers Told Not to Take Masks from the Recycle Bin

Thai Health and Municipal officials were sent onto the streets to instruct scrap collectors not to recycle Face masks from The recycle bin. The call come amid worries over the spread of coronavirus over recycled masks.

Muang Phetchabun mayor Seksan Niyompeng launched the campaign against the illegal and unsafe re-use of face masks, the Bangkok Post reported.

It followed the arrest this week of teens who took masks from the recycle bin and then resold them.

“The arrests have worried people, they are now unsure if masks are brand-new, or not. So, we are checking scrap dealers’ premises in the municipality. Asking them not to gather used masks from the recycle bin, but to destroy them,” Mr Seksan said.

The municipal office also encouraged residents to destroy the masks they used. Instead of putting them in the recycle bin. Above all to prevent illegal recycling and the spread of coronavirus, he said.

On Monday police arrested teens and a women for selling used masks from a recycle bin. They cleaned them in a washing machine, ironed them then sold them online.

Police said two of them were scrap dealers and the other an employee. They had sold about 84,000 used mask at 3 baht apiece over the past month.