Midweek rant: Banning smoking on the beaches descends into farce

[owl sees all]

I notice a subtle change in posting content.

 

Firstly it was 'outrage' at the whole scheme.

 

Then it was alternatives; clean up the beaches.

 

Now it is take all their money away, ban anyone from the beaches and death by firing squad.

 

 

[jvs]

Just add another 20 baht to a packet of smokes for clean-up cost.

People are not allowed to smoke in our house so they go outside and after the finish they just drop whats left or just flick it away.

They just don't get it!

[ezzra]

The Thai authorities has the strange compulsion to enact laws that

are bordering on and from the sublime to the ludicrousness and

ridiculous, why jump on the neck of smokers when you oh so many

other pressing and urgent health issues, to say the least, to deal with?.....

[joecoolfrog]

1 hour ago, halloween said:

Does anybody really believe that the maximum penalty for damage to the environment would be applied for dropping a butt?

It gets used as leverage in a shakedown . " Maximum 100k but you pay me now , only 20k " , that sort of scenario. That is exactly how it worked in the Sukhumvit shakedowns though lesser numbers were involved ( 2,000 max but could be haggled down to 500 no receipt. )

[retarius]

I don't smoke so anything they can do to inconvenience smokers I am in favor of.

[jobwolf]

Yes it is a good thing to clean up and prevent. I just would like to see what would happen if this guy walks Bangla Street in Patong at 6 am and finds the filth, stink and Garbage mountains. I see it every time when I drive through. Sorry I forgot, this is way too erly for patrolling. One might be seen to ignore things in order not disturb business.

[richard_smith237]

14 minutes ago, retarius said:

I don't smoke so anything they can do to inconvenience smokers I am in favor of.

If those who smoke are respectful of those around them who don't then I feel its unfair to inconvenience them for the sake of it. 

 

I see nothing wrong with smoking on a quiet beach, but I would be annoyed if I found myself relaxing on the beach with my 3 year old son and someone a few meters away up wind started smoking. 

 

This has happened in outdoor restaurants when someone on the next table, 1 meter away starts smoking next to my Son. 

 

It is for this reason that many bans exist, not because of the many who are respectful of others, but for the handful of self-centered pr!<ks with no consideration for others. (someone twit will now feel duty bound to mention something about kids in restaurants - Don't bother, it would be a dumb response).

 

I would agree with a stringent littering fine. Fair enough if they have to specifically target beaches at first, enforcement has to start somewhere. But also enforce it at all hours across all Nationalities, not just for the soft targets. 

 

Yes - this is clearly about money and away of avoiding conflict with the real issues of the overwhelming littering by those who live in Thailand (rather than visit on holiday)/ 

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by richard_smith237

[jobwolf]

1 minute ago, jobwolf said:

Yes it is a good thing to clean up and prevent. I just would like to see what would happen if this guy walks Bangla Street in Patong at 6 am and finds the filth, stink and Garbage mountains. I see it every time when I drive through. Sorry I forgot, this is way too erly for patrolling. One might be seen to ignore things in order not disturb business.

And how about all the urinating in the sea. Only 3 public toilets a visible for use on the long stretch of PATONG BEACH. I don't know if I would walk 5oo+ meters just to find a toilet wh

ich is overpriced and filthy.

[xylophone]

22 minutes ago, owl sees all said:

Just stop people going onto the beaches!

No beach chairs, no loungers, no umbrellas and might as well add no smokers, as they've tried just about everything to spoil tourist holidays in Patong.......except of course removing the jetski operators . A real clean up would remove those thugs, but no, they have connections.

[pattayadgw]

Lets get a bit of a grip here... 100,000 bt and / or jail time for smoking on the beach....... if this person was serious about wanting to clean the place up then how about making that fine and jail time across the board for any littering anywhere at any time throughout the country!! 

[realenglish1]

3 hours ago, Get Real said:

This is under no circumstances a way to get more money out of the tourists and foreigners. No, it´s a way to get people to stop throw their butts in the sand. I do really hope that most people understand that this is a perfect plan. All in line with global responsibility an the environmenal friendly plan. 

This is a stupid Law They should have included any trash PERIOD Not just cigarettes  Not a perfect plan but an ill thought of reason Don't you think they should have included all trash not just butts

Get real

[Lingba]

you think a Thai national will be fined 100,000 for dropping his butt on the beach?

[nickmondo]

the whole thing is just absolutely ridiculous, and not really worthy of any more comments.  I think enough has been said about it.  Although I would like to add one thing, regarding beaches....maybe the local government should pay for the beaches to be swept every morning, just like they do in the European resorts......then maybe the foreigners will see that something is actually being done, and will stop the moaning.

[jackdd]

Who does decide how much a person has to pay for this and how long does the decision take?

I only know the fines when driving, there it's simple, because usually it's a fixed fine like 400, 500 or 1000THB, if you get a ticket you pay this fine at the police station and are done.

But i think the police can not just fine you for 100,000THB, or can they?

[owl sees all]

Is it that easy for Thais in authority to make 'laws'?

Edited October 11, 2017 by owl sees all

[CliffH]

Nice try Thailand, but the top prize for silly ideas still goes to San Pedro del Pinatar in the south of Spain, which announced 750 euro fines for peeing in the sea earlier this year.

[Pesche]

2 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

I agree that 2,000 Baht Fine is more reasonable. But why just pick on the smokers?

 

Plastic bottles are not biodegradable either.

 

Why not just a 2,000 Baht Fine for anyone who Litters a Public Beach?

A better concept since no one has 100'000 in the pocket and, sorry if I insist with the fact that, it is more important to inform "the one who didn't get it" that littering is a terrible offense to Mother Nature! We are regularly cleaning the beaches on Ko Lanta (we 95% Farangs) while the people living here since generations just watch...

 

[PAIBKK]

[thaibeachlovers]

4 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

Yeah! What a great idea!

 

Have the person who threw down one cigarette butt, go around for 4 hours picking up empty plastic water bottles, paper wrappers, ice cream sticks, beer bottle caps, and plastic sandwich bags, that everyone else left behind.

 

Seems fare to me to!

Given that I despise people that drop their filthy butts for someone else to pick up, I'd make it a whole day. However, I'd include people that drop the other garbage as well.

[Get Real]

1 hour ago, realenglish1 said:

This is a stupid Law They should have included any trash PERIOD Not just cigarettes  Not a perfect plan but an ill thought of reason Don't you think they should have included all trash not just butts

Get real

And you took my comment as seriously meant??? Even with a laughing guy at the end??? 

[Artisi]

5 hours ago, DoctorG said:

Excellent point EK. Sentenced to maybe 4 hours of litter patrol would do more for the environment, and take away the extortion factor.

Yep, there will be bugger all cigarette butts about, so they can concentrate on the odd bottle, plastic bag,  polystyrene box etc, all inadvertently dropped by an environmentally aware Thai person. 

[thaibeachlovers]

59 minutes ago, Pesche said:

A better concept since no one has 100'000 in the pocket and, sorry if I insist with the fact that, it is more important to inform "the one who didn't get it" that littering is a terrible offense to Mother Nature! We are regularly cleaning the beaches on Ko Lanta (we 95% Farangs) while the people living here since generations just watch...

 

Do you actually expect the locals that depend on tourists to live to actually pick up rubbish? 5555555555555555

In my many years of beaching in LOS, the main activity of local resort employees when not doing something else was sleeping ( during WORK hours ), time they could have been out collecting rubbish.

I was even told by some moron at a dive shop on Chaweng that the discarded 4 litre oil container I picked up to dispose of properly was left on the beach by a tourist!

Far as I could see, the owners and employees thought that we should all just come and give them money without them doing anything to earn it. Most of the places I stayed at were substandard and lacked only an investment of hard work, not money.

 

Having said that, some resorts do clean the beach IN FRONT OF THEIR RESORT ONLY and either leave it in a pile in the grass next door, or bury it in the beach.

 

During my daily walk I always took a bag and collected rubbish, but it was all washed in from out at sea. Much was industrial waste dumped at sea.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, CliffH said:

Nice try Thailand, but the top prize for silly ideas still goes to San Pedro del Pinatar in the south of Spain, which announced 750 euro fines for peeing in the sea earlier this year.

Pity fish can't pay 5555555555555555555555555555.

[gandalf12]

6 hours ago, Get Real said:

This is under no circumstances a way to get more money out of the tourists and foreigners. No, it´s a way to get people to stop throw their butts in the sand. I do really hope that most people understand that this is a perfect plan. All in line with global responsibility an the environmenal friendly plan. 

Good idea to impose a fine for littering but will they impose a fine if it is a Thai? If they do will it be the same level as a foreigner? Highly unlikely. Whilst discrimination is made by nationality there will always be bad feeling by non-Thai's. Have a law yes, impose fines, without question yes but make the punishment the same for everyone.

Edited October 11, 2017 by gandalf12

[Oziex1]

Please start with a major campaign a promotion of the issue of littering and the need to be tidy when visiting Thai beaches, get the word out then punishment when required. The is a lot of work required on this issue, bins and ashtrays close at hand for beach goers would be a good start.

 

The overall concept of efficient waste disposal is another story.

[GOLDBUGGY]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Given that I despise people that drop their filthy butts for someone else to pick up, I'd make it a whole day. However, I'd include people that drop the other garbage as well.

If you have ever been to Singapore you would know this amazing fact. The city streets are very clean there. On there streets and near bus stops they had ashtray with garbage bins, for people to put there Cigarette Butts and Plastic Bottles, in.

 

I think part of the problem with people throwing there Cigarette Butts on the ground is they don't have another place to put them in. I have yet to come across an ashtray on a city street in Thailand. But if you have ever been to a smoking area in Thailand, like at the airport for example, that area is generally clear of Cigarette Butts on the ground as they provide ashtrays to put them in. They also clean them out regularly.

 

So I think part of the problem at the beach is this as well. People generally are not going to get up and walk 100 Meters to drop off an empty pack of cigarettes, or pack of chips, or plastic water bottle and then walk all the way back. If you don't want people to throw trash on he beach then give them plenty of other close places to put that in.

 

There are plenty of ways of reducing the trash on the beach by providing ways in which it can easily be deposed off. Perhaps beach chairs and tables with trash bins equipped on them and emptied by Beach Boys on a regular basis for say 5 baht a time. Then if slobs want to throw there crap on the beach by all means fine them.   

[jackh]

It's all Trumps fault!

[joecoolfrog]

11 hours ago, retarius said:

I don't smoke so anything they can do to inconvenience smokers I am in favor of.

Yet you will be outraged if the next shakedown affects you .

[bangrak]

13 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Far from being a 'perfect' plan, it is an impressive method to keep cigarette butts off the beach which is the goal here. 

I'm very afraid you really believe in what you have been writing, which would, alas for you, be quite in line with what is daily coming out of the mouth of the man on the picture illustrating your avatar, oh, and on the 'presidential' Twitter account of course. The same dellusive behaviour, or are you just pretending? I hope ...  

[bangrak]

11 hours ago, jvs said:

Just add another 20 baht to a packet of smokes for clean-up cost.

People are not allowed to smoke in our house so they go outside and after the finish they just drop whats left or just flick it away.

They just don't get it!

An ashtray might do the trick, and save you from an overproduction of gale...