Bangkok: The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) collected a total of 391,027 krathongs across 110 locations after the 2025 Loy Krathong festival. This total marks a significant decrease of approximately 24% from the previous year, continuing a downward trend. For comparison, the city collected 514,590 krathongs in 2024 and 639,828 in 2023, indicating that the number of physical vessels being floated is consistently declining. BMA Spokesperson Ekwaranyu Amrapal stated that the collection process began at 8:00 pm on November 5 and was completed by 5:00 am on November 6.
According to Thai News Agency, a large majority of the collected krathongs were made from environmentally friendly materials. Of the total collected, 323,626 pieces were made from natural, biodegradable materials, accounting for 82.76%. The remaining rafts included 39,103 bread krathongs (10.01%) and 28,298 foam krathongs (7.23%).
The floats collected from the Chao Phraya River are carefully sorted: those made from natural materials are sent to the Nong Khaem facility to be ground down and processed into organic fertilizer, while non-degradable materials, such as foam, are disposed of properly in landfills.
Furthermore, the BMA’s alternative, the virtual Loy Krathong event, saw continued participation. Hosted for the second year on the greener.bangkok.go.th website, which simulates floating at 34 public parks and ICONSIAM, the event recorded 23,347 krathongs floated online. This figure, however, was lower than the 36,832 virtual krathongs recorded in 2024.