At an industrial site in East Thailand, the thitipus choddachachenun changes through a scrap metal, circuit board and old computer keyboard mound in a warehouse warehouse next to a busy highway.

Like forensic scientists, he and his team of inspectors of the Ministry of Industry of Thailand take samples of waste and carefully take a bag to take it away for analysis.

“It is very clearly electronic waste and the company, the owner of this site, does not have a license to process it,” she concludes. “This is a growing problem in Thailand.”

Ms. Choddachachanun is the head of a ministry task force that is trying to hold a hold with the problem of Thailand’s e-waste.

Every week, he and his team have come out to raid these unwanted plants, which are in recent years, mostly out of the point of view of the authorities.

But despite their efforts, the problem keeps increasing.

In the past, China was a leading recipient of electronic waste. Its ton was sent worldwide, mostly from Western countries, there and cheaply recycled there.

But in 2018, Beijing banned imports. This forced shippers to see elsewhere and many of them joined Thailand and other countries in South-East Asia.

Thailand introduced its import ban in 2020 but has not solved the problem. According to the environment group Earth Thailand, the flood of electronic waste in the country has increased by twenty times in the last decade, with a year of 3,000 tonnes to 60,000 a year before the Chinese ban.

Most of these come from the US and the European Union, where consumers update their mobile phones and computers relatively repeatedly, and where the per capita use of electrical goods such as fridge and washing machines is more.

Even though most western countries have laws to prevent e-waste dumping in other countries, they have round methods. For example, some waste is deliberately misled in the form of “second-hand electronic goods for re-cells”, only after reaching its destination, only sabotage, recycled and strangled.

This smelting is a dirty business, which releases mercury, lead and toxic smoke in the environment. But this is also attractive, producing millions of dollars of copper, gold and other valuable metals and minerals.

“Thailand is not getting anything from these businesses,” Thai Industry Minister Akanat Prampon told the BBC in Bangkok.

“There is no value for the economy, it destroys the environment, it gives rise to dangers and puts people’s livelihood in danger. So I have formed a special task force to engage in full-perfect on these businesses.”

He says that the recycling plants, many of which are Chinese owned, have “a type of waste site – an international waste processing facility – in Thailand – in Thailand.

Once the e-waste comes in Thailand and reaches the sites, it is fed in huge crushed machines that reduce it in a kind of gravel. The valuable metal is then strangled to retrieve.

Promphon says that most of the metal are exported to China.

The environmental influence of this business can be destructive.

On his small plot of land in East Thailand, 57 -year -old Seng Wongsena told the BBC that a polluted water from a nearby smelter has blurred its casava harvest. “Plants do not plant flowers,” they say, complaining that the smell from the smelter is so bad that it wakes up at night.

Local environmentalists say the plant is working illegally and urged local authorities to close it.

International environmentalists are also campaigning on these issues.

“Thailand has actually caused so much brunt,” Jim Pick, Executive Director of Basal Action Network, an NGO that campaigns against shipment of toxic waste. “If you import this very dirty content for recycling, then you were going to contaminate your soil, your people.”

The Battle of Thailand against e-waste is part of a very large global problem.

According to the United Nations, the world produces more than 60 million tonnes of electrical and electronic waste every year – doubled 15 years ago. The figure is estimated to increase by more than 30% by the end of the decade.

Its collected in less than a quarter of it and is recycled with responsibility, the United Nations says. And the recycling rate is failing to maintain the rate on which we are generating it.

Some countries have introduced laws to make electronic freight manufacturers – the choice of apples, Samsung, Dell and Hewlet Pacords – once they have reached the end of their lives and are more responsible for withdrawing the gadgets to deal with them responsibly.

Thailand is planning to follow the suit with his own law.

“I am expecting to implement this new law as soon as possible, perhaps at the end of this year, probably,” says Promphon, “says Promphon. “I am fully committed to taking full action against this illegal business and taking them out completely.”