How to sort your garbage and trash in Thailand

[BadCash]

In the place I'm staying, there is one yellow bin marked "Trash" and a green one labelled "Garbage". I'm not a native English speaker, so the difference is not obvious to me. From what I could find online, the difference is that "garbage" would be "wet" waste from kitchen/bathroom, while "trash" would be other things you're throwing away. Is this the correct interpretation in Thailand as well?

 

Then there's the second part - how should I sort my trash? In my home country I would sort it into compostable waste, plastic containers, paper containers, metal containers, newspapers, clear glass, colored glass, electronics, "burnable", etc... Not to mention recycling PET bottles and aluminium cans!

 

So how does it work in Thailand? I usually crush my plastic bottles and put them in a separate bag in the trash, imagining that some guy who will sort it later would find that helpful. But then I heard someone say that people actually recycle bottles - so should I not crush them? It's there any point in sorting different stuff into different bags (glass, plastic, metal)? Or will it all end up in the same pile? I believe I've seen garbage collectors sorting stuff on the truck, but I have no idea how they sort it...

 

[giddyup]

We keep one garbage bin just for bottles, tins, cardboard and plastics, the other one is just for food scraps. I think we are the only ones in a village of 40 houses to bother. It just saves the garbage men having to sort through all the wet garbage to find the recyclables.

[OmegaRacer]

37 minutes ago, giddyup said:

We keep one garbage bin just for bottles, tins, cardboard and plastics, the other one is just for food scraps. I think we are the only ones in a village of 40 houses to bother. It just saves the garbage men having to sort through all the wet garbage to find the recyclables.

I do the same. 

[giddyup]

1 minute ago, OmegaRacer said:

I do the same. 

I think I've been conditioned to do it that way from Australia where we have 3 bins, one for kitchen waste, one for recyclables and one for green waste (leaves, grass etc).

[PAIBKK]

Don't need to separate garbage in Thailand.

They have automatic monkeys doing that for you...

[Laza 45]

2 hours ago, giddyup said:

We keep one garbage bin just for bottles, tins, cardboard and plastics, the other one is just for food scraps. I think we are the only ones in a village of 40 houses to bother. It just saves the garbage men having to sort through all the wet garbage to find the recyclables.

I do the same.. the garbage men like me.. 

[giddyup]

20 minutes ago, PAIBKK said:

Don't need to separate garbage in Thailand.

They have automatic monkeys doing that for you...

How hard is it to keep two bins and throw the recyclables in one? I know who is the monkey.

[Beats56]

I recycle paper..

Glass and plastic and aluminum cans all separate. When we get enough we call a gal and she comes and picks it up and weighs it. Get a few baht. I don't do it for money just that it's the right thing to do.

[Brunolem]

Depends on where one lives...

 

If one lives in Pattaya, or somewhere along the coast, one might want to drop one's recyclables on the beach, while throwing everything else in the sea.

 

Upcountry, where there is no garbage collection...and no beaches...one usually burns whatever is combustible,  thus sending some badly needed carbon dioxyde in the atmosphere, and drops everything else along the roads, thus brightening up the landscape...

[UnkleMoooose]

Dump it at the side of the road like the Thais. Sorted!!

[ToddinChonburi]

Garbage ?   Trash ?     What the hell. !!

[Jsinbkk]

Really?

 

Peaole do this crap?

 

I put the trash in the trash can and let God sort it out. 

[csabo]

2 hours ago, Beats56 said:

I recycle paper..

Glass and plastic and aluminum cans all separate. When we get enough we call a gal and she comes and picks it up and weighs it. Get a few baht. I don't do it for money just that it's the right thing to do.

Why don't you just donate it to her? I have a shanty near me that's always surrounded by bottles so I drop mine there. The gal gives me a Wai and I motor off. I can't imagine standing there waiting for her to count them out and pay me. 

Edited November 28, 2017 by csabo

[SunsetT]

The many roadside 'scavengers' sort it for you before the binmen arrive. And there seems to be many of them making a living from it in the town where I live.

 

[tifino]

 

The only sorting I need to do, is to rush out to the bin (to beat the garbage truck);

 

  - to extract back anything of value of my own that missus has thrown in behind my back

 

 

" I trow away it you all lubbish!"

 

 - clothes, especially warm stuff, because it summer now... no think that winter inevitably comes around again!

 - half my library disappeared, as "reading word give her headache" (even though she hasn't read any of it, to get the headache)

[giddyup]

1 hour ago, Jsinbkk said:

Really?

 

Peaole do this crap?

 

I put the trash in the trash can and let God sort it out. 

It's the garbage guys that have to sort it out, not god, and I try to make life a little easier for them. Some people have trouble grasping that concept.

[giddyup]

1 hour ago, UnkleMoooose said:

Dump it at the side of the road like the Thais. Sorted!!

Some of us are a bit more responsible than that, and I can't be worried about what other people do.

[duanebigsby]

My school just introduced different bins for different waste.

Slow in coming, but it will eventually with more education.

I do the best I can to separate my recyclables from my waste to make it easier on the collectors.

A  lot of really decent posters doing the same , but a few a-hole comments.

[duanebigsby]

1 hour ago, Jsinbkk said:

Really?

 

Peaole do this crap?

 

I put the trash in the trash can and let God sort it out. 

Is that what Christians believe? God is a garbage collector?

 

[duanebigsby]

OP, your assumptions are right and I'm glad you're concerned. Up til now, everyone just throws all waste into one bin and let the garbage/recycle centres sort it.

 

We can help out by sorting it at source and make recycling easier for the collectors.

 

Schools and tourist sights are just starting to go that route. I like to do my little part even though it's a drop in the bucket.

 

[Katia]

I separate recycling from trash, though all recyclables go in one bag together.  I'm not sure how the people who collect it sort it.  But the ladies who clean the offices where I work tend to have one bag for trash and one for recyclables (sometimes a separate smaller bag in the larger "recycle" bag for plastic bottles, though).

[impulse]

51 minutes ago, SunsetT said:

The many roadside 'scavengers' sort it for you before the binmen arrive. And there seems to be many of them making a living from it in the town where I live.

 

In my downtown BKK apartment building, I've identified 3 levels of sorters before the garbage guys become the 4th level before they load it on the truck.  The cleaning people get first dibs, then the maintenance guys, then some scavengers from the neighborhood (same ones for 5 years now), then finally the garbage guys spread it out on the road and scrounge through just before it goes on the truck.

 

It's heartening to see people making a living at it, but I sure don't envy them.

 

[Fireyfish]

seems like a good place to add this .... further to a thread a few weeks back about people doing a trash cleanup at a beach and some on here saying Thais should be doing it ... well some are ... I witnessed a clean up yesterday at Au Nang near the pier organised by 'Trash Heros' and yes some farang tourists helped but mostly this group plus some school kids ..... educate the kids and maybe they will educate the parents

https://www.facebook.com/trashherothailand/

[khunPer]

10 hours ago, BadCash said:

So how does it work in Thailand?

We use two bins, one with a black plastic bag for garbage; and another with a clear plastic bag for bottles (both glass and plastic), and alu-cans (beer and soda), and cardboard, presume "trash" can be a word for it. If we have anything else for reuse or recycle – could be old electronics or... – I'll put it in a separate clear plastic bag. I use clear bags for recycle/reuse stuff, so it's easy for the collector to see and sort; plastic, and cans, and cardboard/paper represent value, and can be sold, so the garbage collector is happy with the arrangement and gladly take all, if we sometime have extra stuff to be disposed; worn out electronics, for example, also represent a value.

 

I think few places has an official sorting system, but most don't – however everyone sort out bottles and cans, and if you don't do it yourself, some will try to go through the garbage and remove anything of recycle-value before the garbage collectors comes. We had for a period to hide our bottle'n'can-bags at a with our garbage collector agreed place, as otherwise someone stole it...

[Nurseynutcase]

OK. newspapers, cardboard and any sort of paper in one bag,

 

Plastic bottles and cans, in another bag.

 

Glass bottles and jars in another bag.

 

Beer bottles in their boxes.

 

All stored under the house - left to mount up for a few weeks and our lady recycler comes and picks it all up.

 

The money she gets for it goes towards her kids schooling.

 

Any metal or other items left on top of this pile which she also takes.

 

Yiny bag of non-recyclable waste is put out each night for the rubbish/trash/garbage (call it what you like) truck.

[SunsetT]

14 hours ago, khunPer said:

We use two bins, one with a black plastic bag for garbage; and another with a clear plastic bag for bottles (both glass and plastic), and alu-cans (beer and soda), and cardboard, presume "trash" can be a word for it. If we have anything else for reuse or recycle – could be old electronics or... – I'll put it in a separate clear plastic bag. I use clear bags for recycle/reuse stuff, so it's easy for the collector to see and sort; plastic, and cans, and cardboard/paper represent value, and can be sold, so the garbage collector is happy with the arrangement and gladly take all, if we sometime have extra stuff to be disposed; worn out electronics, for example, also represent a value.

 

I think few places has an official sorting system, but most don't – however everyone sort out bottles and cans, and if you don't do it yourself, some will try to go through the garbage and remove anything of recycle-value before the garbage collectors comes. We had for a period to hide our bottle'n'can-bags at a with our garbage collector agreed place, as otherwise someone stole it...

So what if they stole it? They steal/take it to recycle it and scratch a living. The garbage collectors are already paid a wage so I would think they need the income from recycling less than the 'thieves'.

 

[khunPer]

3 hours ago, SunsetT said:

So what if they stole it? They steal/take it to recycle it and scratch a living. The garbage collectors are already paid a wage so I would think they need the income from recycling less than the 'thieves'.

 

Could be our kind garbage collector lady deserves the extra tip for her good work, and always cleaning nicely where garbage had been placed, rather than neighbors (who in facto were the thieves) stealing the sorted items for resale; shall add that I live in a small soi where "thieves" normally don't bother to come...

Edited November 29, 2017 by khunPer

[Jsinbkk]

Two pages on garage!  Man , you guys need to get out of the house!

[Ruffian Dick]

We have three in the Colonies: 1. Recycle. 2. Landfill. 3. Compost.

The distinction between the last two is lost on most people, but of course there are plenty of things that won't compost or recycle.

Now translate that to Thai.

[ResandePohm]

Why throw anything recyclable in the rubbish bin. We sort into cardboard boxes in the garage; clear glass, coloured glass, cardboard, paper, aluminium tins, other metal tins, pet bottles, other plastic. Then every couple of months we take it all to the recycle plant and sell it. Don't get much but every little helps as they say at Tesco and it keeps Thailand tidy.