Salmon crates from Norway pile up in Thailand

A large number of styrofoam boxes from the Norwegian seafood industry end up in holiday paradises in Asia.

It appears in a case from NRK. New photos from WWF Thailand show a mountain of styrofoam boxes that have ended up in Koh Samui in Thailand.

Most of the boxes originate from the Norwegian seafood industry, Anusit Srisra tells NRK. Srisra owns the sorting center on the island.

Colors to trouble
The center collects and sorts plastic waste. Although many of the Styrofoam boxes can be recycled as pellets, this is not the case for all. According to Srisra, a lot is lost in the wind – and the color pigment on the boxes means that several of them cannot be processed in the melting machine.

According to Plastforum, 65 million EPS fish boxes were produced last year. NRK writes that an estimated 60 million of these are exported a year. 80 percent of Styrofoam boxes are recycled, according to the EPS association.

This is what the industry says
Seafood Norway is among those who have spoken to NRK:

– The case shows a need for a better survey to look at measures to increase the recycling rate where it accumulates. Together with the EPS association, we will therefore take the initiative for an industry collaboration to reduce the risk that we will see such situations in the future, both for the environment, but also to ensure that important resources that can be reused do not disappear, says Henrik Wiedswang Horjen, communications manager at the seafood organisation.

Several of the crates in the photos from Thailand are from Firda Seafood. Community contact Øyvind Kråkås believes that stray plastic and general littering is a problem.

– The packaging must be standardized and certified, and therefore we see that these are objectives that the entire food industry must recognize and solve jointly, he says to NRK.

Kristina Furnes, communications manager at Grieg Seafood (who is not directly connected to the case), says that Grieg is looking at opportunities for different types of reusable boxes for shipping fish.

– But Styrofoam boxes can be a good solution where they are recycled. In dialogue with civil society in Asia, we have learned that EPS boxes are also reused in many places, but this case shows that we as an industry have a job to do in improving this.

Also read: The Norwegian Environment Agency wants greater producer responsibility for aquaculture plastics going astray

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