Summit recycling drive mocked

‘Green’ seats: Journalists sitting on chairs made out of paper before a press conference during the Asean summit in Bangkok. — AFP

Bangkok: Despite offering chairs and notebooks made from recycled paper at the summit, Thailand and its South-East Asian allies were accused of a “greenwash” with their oceans and communities brimming with plastic refuse.

Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and China dump more than half of the eight million tonnes of plastic waste that end up in oceans every year, according to a 2017 Ocean Conservancy report.