Overflowing Phuket landfill closed amid mounting crisis

PHUKET - Phuket City has halted the dumping of garbage at its primary landfill indefinitely,    because it is already overfull and trucks are dumping rubbish on an access road, preventing other vehicles from entering the site.

Mayor Suppachoke Laongphet announced the suspension on Sunday, describing the situation at the Phuket municipal waste disposal centre as the province's "seventh waste-management crisis".

According to the announcement, waste volumes have exceeded the landfill's capacity, forcing authorities to urgently hire additional machines to prepare more space within the existing landfill to receive incoming waste. Rubbish trucks have been waiting longer than usual to unload over the past week.

The drivers of many garbage trucks refused to wait and dumped their loads along the road leading to the landfill on Sunday morning. This obstructed access for other vehicles and worsened the situation.

Waste collection would be suspended until landfill area was reorganised, Discussions were being held with local authorities and contractors involved in waste movement, the announcement said.

- Landfill overloaded -

The latest disruption comes as Phuket struggles with a long-running waste problem.

Mr Suppachoke said more than 1.2 million tonnes of waste had accumulated at disposal sites, far exceeding the original capacity of about 900,000 tonnes. Rapid urban growth, population increases and the expansion of tourism have continued to push waste volumes higher, leaving little room for additional landfill. (continues below)

Officials are now managing landfill cells on a day-to-day basis, redistributing and compacting waste to create enough space for daily deliveries.

The situation has also put pressure on the province's sole waste incinerator. As of Saturday, more than 12,000 tonnes of waste had accumulated at a storage area feeding the incinerator, well above its designed capacity of 9,000 tonnes.

Phuket currently operates one incinerator capable of disposing of about 700 tonnes of waste per day. However, the province generates around 1,200 tonnes daily, with the figure rising significantly during the tourism high season.

A second incinerator, expected to be completed by June next year, is designed to process an additional 500 tonnes a day, raising total disposal capacity to about 1,200 tonnes daily.

However, Mr Suppachoke said increasing incineration capacity alone would not solve the problem.

He urged residents, businesses and government agencies to reduce waste at the source, saying waste reduction and recycling remained the most sustainable long-term solution for Phuket.