The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is stepping up efforts to reduce waste within its organisation by encouraging employees to use reusable food and beverage containers at its cafeteria. The initiative aims to make sustainable practices a convenient part of employees’ daily routines and foster longer-term behavioural change.
Reuse and return containers
Employees and visitors ordering drinks at the central bank’s cafeteria may notice a simple question before paying: “Did you bring your own cup, or would you like to borrow one?”
Those who bring their own cups or opt to use reusable cups provided by the vendor can enjoy their drinks while helping to reduce single-use waste. The initiative forms part of the central bank’s broader efforts to minimise waste within the organisation and encourage more sustainable habits among employees.
The regulator said the initiative encourages staff to bring their own reusable containers, cups and cloth bags as the primary means of reducing resource consumption and preventing waste at the source.
To make the transition easier, the central bank also introduced reusable containers provided by EcoCrew Thailand for employees who forget or are unable to bring their own. Users pay a deposit of 10 baht per container and can return the items at designated collection points to receive an immediate refund.
EcoCrew Thailand is an environmental startup that provides a circular borrow-and-return service for reusable packaging, including food containers and cups, at events and other venues.
The company’s deposit-return system allows customers to borrow reusable items when purchasing food and drinks and return them at designated stations for an immediate refund.
According to EcoCrew Thailand’s Facebook page, the company has provided its service at more than 70 events nationwide over the past two years, helping to eliminate more than 400,000 single-use plastic items.
Cooperation from all parties
The central bank launched the borrow-and-return programme for food and beverage containers through EcoCrew on June 15. Before its implementation, preparations included designing the operating model, assessing potential impacts, evaluating suitable alternatives and gathering feedback from employees and participating vendors.
The regulator piloted the EcoCrew model during its annual Quality of Life event in 2025 to assess how effectively the system would work under real-world conditions.
“The approach was designed to ensure that waste reduction does not become an additional burden for employees, but instead becomes an easy and practical part of their daily routines,” the central bank noted.
Canteen stalls, food and beverage vendors, and the café at the central bank have played an important role in the initiative. The bank held discussions with vendors to explain the programme and help them adapt their operations to accommodate reusable containers.
Although some initial challenges arose from differences between the reusable containers and the packaging traditionally used by vendors, participating shops have provided strong cooperation and support, reflecting a shared commitment to phasing out single-use containers.
Ahead of the launch, the central bank also conducted communication and awareness campaigns to familiarise employees with the initiative. These efforts included an official opening ceremony chaired by Suwannee Jetsadasak, the central bank’s deputy governor for administration.
The programme’s early results suggest that providing convenient alternatives can help encourage longer-term behavioural change.
Between June 15 and Aug 13, central bank employees used EcoCrew’s reusable containers 8,330 times, equivalent to roughly 1,000 uses per week. The initiative is estimated to have reduced the central bank’s greenhouse gas emissions by 1,083 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2e).
More importantly, the central bank has observed a gradual shift in employee behaviour.
While EcoCrew containers were initially used as an alternative to single-use packaging, employees have increasingly begun bringing their own containers as they become more familiar with the programme and more conscious of waste reduction.
The regulator said this trend suggests the initiative can do more than deliver an immediate reduction in single-use waste: it can also help establish more sustainable habits over the longer term.
EcoCrew’s reusable containers remain available as an option for employees who do not have their own.
The programme forms part of the central bank’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts, improving waste management and encouraging employee participation in environmental initiatives.
Teerawan Itsarangkul Na Ayuthaya, a central bank employee, said she regularly used the borrow-and-return tableware programme, which gradually changed her behaviour and made her more mindful of waste separation.
“Beyond doing this at my workplace, I’m trying to maintain the same habit wherever I go, as much as possible,” she said.
Some of her colleagues, who often buy takeaway food to eat at home, also adopted the practice as an alternative to disposable plastic containers, said Ms Teerawan.
The central bank has introduced several other initiatives to embed environmental responsibility in employees’ everyday activities.
A waste separation programme launched in 2025 has improved the design of waste bins and signage to make sorting easier and more accurate. As a result, the number of incorrectly disposed items has fallen sharply to just seven per month, from around 9,000 previously. On a per-employee basis, the figure has declined from 3.3 items to 0.003 items.
The bank also introduced the “Order Only What You Can Eat” campaign to tackle food waste. Since its launch in 2025, daily food waste has fallen to 22-25kg from roughly 100kg previously.
Another initiative eliminated plastic carrier bags at its cafeteria, encouraging employees to use reusable cloth bags instead.
The “Sell Your Own Waste” programme, started in 2024, extends employee participation beyond the workplace by encouraging staff and their families to separate recyclable waste at home and channel it into appropriate recycling schemes. To date, around 26,000kg of recyclable waste have been collected and sold, helping to avoid an estimated 16,000 kgCO2e emissions.
In addition, the bank has operated electric vehicle charging stations since 2022 to encourage employees to switch to electric, reducing fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
An environmental culture
The regulator said the principle underpinning its waste management strategy is not an imposition of rules, but rather creating systems and environments that make sustainable behaviour easy, convenient and appealing.
The approach combines raising awareness, offering incentives and practical infrastructure, enabling employees to participate in environmental initiatives as part of their everyday routines.
“The ultimate goal is to move beyond compliance and foster a culture in which employees see themselves as active participants in environmental change rather than simply following organisational policies,” the central bank noted.
Sustained behavioural change among employees could eventually foster an organisation-wide environmental culture and establish the bank as a model for sustainable resource use and environmental management.
The approach has attracted interest from external organisations, as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion, Chulalongkorn University and Sivatel Bangkok Hotel have visited the central bank to study its environmental management practices and explore ways to apply similar approaches within their own organisations.