Thailand to declare war on plastic bags - by charging for them

[catman20]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

Long overdue, plastic bag use is getting seriously out of hand.

Last week i was in Global house buying blue pipe fittings.

I had 4 different types (only 16 pieces) everyone could fit in my hand, girl put them in 4 different bags, then put the 4 bags in another bag, bloody crazy. 1 bag was enough.

and did you tell her so ?

[bert bloggs]

Tesco give you extra points if you take your own bag , my wife has used our own bags for years , but then she did spend 7 years in the UK so is used to it .

[thhMan]

Or... simply enforce some laws they have

Its not only plastic bags but a lot of other crap that gets dumped.

 

If they are prepared to come down on the small percentage of smokers, why not come down on the general public and fine garbage dumpers?

[Kolantaman]

Want to clean Thailand up??? Offer 190 bath per pound of plastic and watch thailand become clean clean clean.....oh but that would take money away from personal retirement accounts of so many...and a division of recycling would never work......shucks!!

[sahibji]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

5 baht per bag for Thais, 10 baht for Farang ?

why different price for the Farang?

[Lupatria]

There must be better ways to prevent the plastic overflow than to charge people twice, or does anyone think the price of the bags used by 7-Eleven is not part of a price calculation of the goods? And where will the extra money go, into environmental projects?

[Card]

The best way to reduce plastic bag use is to not provide them in supermarkets and not sell them in bulk. Makro does not provide bags and people are quite happy without them - they can always bring their own.

 

And the plastics industry is at fault - not only should they invest in biodegradable technology but not make it appear that their bags are environmentally friendly by colouring them green and putting a 'degradeable' label on them when they are not (I have tested this myself).

 

Rubbish bags could be made from other material than plastic.

[jreidy]

Great, great, great..it works!

One of the first countries in the world to introduce a plastic bag charge way back in March 2002. The Republic of Ireland introduced a 6 baht tax. Levied on consumers at the point of sale, this led to 90% of consumers using long-life bags within a year. The tax was increased to 8 baht in 2007. The revenue is put into an Environment Fund. Ireland is now essentially plastic bag free.

[Bob12345]

2 hours ago, wayned said:

They should be like Macro and not provide any bags at all.  If you want a bag you have to either bring one or buy one.  Macro sells them at the checkout stand but they are still plastic.  

I' ve seen people go around that by going to the meat department and getting 5-10 large bags for meat. They just take them to the checkout and pack their smaller stuff in them.

 

And nobody says anything about it because the person might have a gun in the car and will come back to shoot you.

[colinneil]

25 minutes ago, catman20 said:

and did you tell her so ?

Yes i did, she just smiled.

[Adeeos]

CRAZY to buy a single bottle of water at a 7-11, and they put it in a bag with a straw,, I always take it out, and of course they throw the now, "used" bag in a bin behind the counter,,, craziness,,, 

[barryofthailand]

They tried this a couple of years ago and the Thais protested massively so it was dropped. This will never happen in Thailand as the Thai people will object.

[PremiumLane]

2 hours ago, OJAS said:

Definitely agree with this in principle, but Big C and Tesco Lotus need IMHO to get rid of the bloody miserable "security" jobsworths standing at their entrances who insist that you deposit the empty bags or rucksacks in which you might be planning to carry your purchases at the left luggage counter!

personally I just ignore them and walk straight in. It is very rare that they will pursue you into the shop

[PremiumLane]

8 minutes ago, Adeeos said:

CRAZY to buy a single bottle of water at a 7-11, and they put it in a bag with a straw,, I always take it out, and of course they throw the now, "used" bag in a bin behind the counter,,, craziness,,, 

Just tell them not to put it in a bag when you put the items on the counter then you won't have this problem, always works 

[phetpeter]

Charging for a plastic bag, so how is Tesco and 7/11 going to do that! your bill is 50 baht plus 2 bags, that will be 60 baht please! and where is the money for the plastic bags going?. Better to ban plastic bags for all items under 1 kgs. Paper bags or quick bio degrade within a month  must be the answer maybe stillthey will be dumped , but, one spell of rain and there are gone! plus the paper bags would also be stronger in the short journeys required from check out to car and car to kitchen, can be burn or shredded into the garden and returned to where they came from, put some wild flower or tree seeds  into the pulp so that they will return something else back to the garden

[everett kendall]

Please put a Return Deposit on plastic bottles.  

[barryofthailand]

2 minutes ago, phetpeter said:

Charging for a plastic bag, so how is Tesco and 7/11 going to do that! your bill is 50 baht plus 2 bags, that will be 60 baht please! and where is the money for the plastic bags going?. Better to ban plastic bags for all items under 1 kgs. Paper bags or quick bio degrade within a month  must be the answer maybe stillthey will be dumped , but, one spell of rain and there are gone! plus the paper bags would also be stronger in the short journeys required from check out to car and car to kitchen, can be burn or shredded into the garden and returned to where they came from, put some wild flower or tree seeds  into the pulp so that they will return something else back to the garden

A couple of yrs ago Tesco and Big C was going to charge 2 Baht per plastic bag. They gave a 30 day notice but like everything else in Thailand it was ignored

 

[phetpeter]

No they can't do that it will put thousand of trash collectors out of work, you know the ones who come round going through your bins for recyclable bits, let alone the trucks that come and buy from you all the empty beer bottles stacked at the side of your house!

[terryw]

Two years ago the UK introduced a 5p charge and this has reduced plastic bag use by 85%.

Hopefully this is just not talk and Thailand will introduce a charge.

[barryofthailand]

15 minutes ago, Adeeos said:

CRAZY to buy a single bottle of water at a 7-11, and they put it in a bag with a straw,, I always take it out, and of course they throw the now, "used" bag in a bin behind the counter,,, craziness,,, 

Just tell them Mai Ow Thong which means you do not want a Bag.

[quandow]

This is state law in California, and once you get accustomed to it, it's easy to comply. Now, they use only paper bags (plastic is outlawed), and if you need some paper bags it's a trivial cost, and you can also choose to bring your own bags at no cost to your pocketbook NOR the environment. And, as a scuba diver, I can't tell you HOW many times I saw plastic bags in the Thai waters. These kill turtles who think they are jellyfish, eat them, then plug up their intestines to death.

[impulse]

4 minutes ago, everett kendall said:

Please put a Return Deposit on plastic bottles.  

 

They already have one- the value of the plastic itself.  There are thousands of Thai people just in BKK who feed their families by collecting discarded bottles for recycling.  Back home where the labor for collecting and recycling costs more than the plastic is worth, so it makes sense to add a deposit. 

 

Not so much in Thailand.

[phetpeter]

Like they UK putting a sin Tax on cigarettes, stopped everybody smoking didn't it!...Not!   5pence is nothing in the bigger scheme of things to everyday folk...except everyday folk totals millions of folks  so where is that money going, not to employ more collectors or recycling plants is it!

[phetpeter]

Remember R. Whites used to give you money back on empty bottles, But the cost of returning, cleaning and reusing, H&S, finally killed that off

[impulse]

4 minutes ago, barryofthailand said:

Just tell them Mai Ow Thong which means you do not want a Bag.

 

While I appreciate the attempt, without getting the tones right, "speaking Thai" is pretty risky.  You may convey the correct message, or you may be calling someone's sister a fat cow.  I've seen huge arguments started in China when someone got the tones wrong.  I can't imagine it doesn't happen in Thailand...

 

I just say "no bag, please" and it works 100% of the time.

 

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

As noted by one poster above, this was not a government announcement. The headline was utterly misleading and the "news" was merely a university conference. So save your breath, folks, until there's an official directive.

[Colabamumbai]

Just give everyone a large reusable cloth bag. Mine has worked for 20 years.

 

[impulse]

2 minutes ago, phetpeter said:

Remember R. Whites used to give you money back on empty bottles, But the cost of returning, cleaning and reusing, H&S, finally killed that off

 

If you added up the cost of litter remediation on a typical highway, and divided that by the number of pieces they picked up, you'd find that they can pay a "bounty" of about a dollar per bottle and it's still cheaper than paying a crew to pick them off the side of the road. 

 

It has more to do with the cost of litter remediation (and, in Thailand's case, the damage done to tourism by all the garbage floating around) and little to do with the net value of the recycled materials.  But whatever program is implemented needs to be designed with that in mind. 

 

Sadly, if they implemented a bounty for plastic bags in Thailand, people would be buying them by the caseload to sell them back for the bounty.  And cottage industries would spring up across every land border to import trash into Thailand.  So mandating a fee for buying them is a good start.

 

[sammieuk1]

And so the plastic police was formed.

[Sir Dude]

Biodegradable bags would also help (I get them when I shop at the big malls), even if you charged everyone a few baht for each one. The problem is that average people get the hump with change like this as plastic bag abuse has become habitual for so many here and you would have to deal with the plastic bag industry mafia and company cartels that wield shadowy influence on this one. However,  this article is simply about a talking-shop forum and not coming from anyone with any power to change anything. Although, sooner or later they will have to do something about this shamefully wasteful situation as it is of present. Bit of a faceplam to see people with a plastic bag full of Pepsi and a straw. 7-11 is probably the number 1 major offender when it comes to plastic bags.