BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand began the year with a ban on single-use plastic bags that Bangkok office worker Nicha Singhanoi hoped would cut back the waste that puts her country among the world's top ...

Thailand, for example, banned imports of household waste in 2019, and is nearing a decision to block shipments of cleaner plastic “scrap,” which are still permitted, from the middle of this decade.

A whale found to have swallowed up to 80 plastic bags is seen in Songkhla, Thailand, in this still image from a June 1, 2018 video footage by Thailand's Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.

Plastic shopping bags, which have low recycling rates and often become litter when they blow away in the wind, are among the biggest culprits of plastic pollution in the ocean and along shorelines.