Pattaya beach businesses blame tourist boat operators for rising level of garbage being washed ashore

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Pattaya beach businesses blame tourist boat operators for rising level of garbage being washed ashore

By The Nation

 

 

Irresponsible tourist-boat operators have been blamed for dumping their rubbish into the sea, resulting in a large amount of garbage being washed ashore onto one beach in particular in Pattaya and harming both tourism and the environment in Pattaya Bay more generally.

A large volume of garbage has reportedly been washing up on Cozy Beach, with plastic waste – mainly empty bottles and discarded cutlery items – seen littering both the beach and the sea.

 

 

Cozy Beach beach-bed hiring operator Uthai Pengphan yesterday said the garbage problem on his stretch of sand was not new, as rubbish washed up on the beach throughout the year.

 

However, at this time of year, when there is strong wind, more waste tends to find its way ashore.

 

“I suspect that this [extra] garbage is from the tourist boats, because the rubbish is tied up in big garbage bags. But when the rubbish bags float in the sea, the waves often break them open, causing smaller pieces of trash to float around Pattaya Bay,” Uthai explained.

 

“This garbage makes the beach dirty and unpleasant, so we have to collect it all day, every day, or else the tourists won’t come and we’ll have no income,” the beach-bed hirer added.

 

Garbage in the sea is an increasingly major problem for Thailand. 

 

It is not only making the beaches dirty and harming tourism, but it is also the main cause of death for many aquatic animals, such as turtles and whales – and is generating many environmental problems.

 

According to Greenpeace, Thailand is ranked sixth on the list of countries that generate the largest amount of waste into the sea, leaking more than 1 million tonnes of waste into coastal waters a year.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30335244

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-03

[ezzra]

Tourist boat operators, apart from being a mafia on itself, are

poor hard working people, aching a living price gouging the

poor sods tourists, garbage? not their problem, let someone

else worry about that....

 

[mok199]

i will say this as I walk the beach here in pattaya daily...the majority of litter on the footpaths, is from locals and other thais picnicing...I can specutalte as to why but only thais know for sure..entitlement ,lack of respect,laziness...mabey some of the reasons..BUT..it is beyond me as to how someone can walk away ,leaving their garbage 5 ft from a trash bin...

Edited January 3, 2018 by mok199

[smedly]

and what is the marine dept doing to address this very serious issue ?

 

absolutely nothing 

[moonseeker]

Disgusting and filthy. Just like every Soi in Pattaya. A total lack of education and respect for the environment. Off course I mean all these foreigners causing these. ☹️

[anon789561]

slightly off topic but what happened to seven starting to charge for plastic bags? i got a can of coke yesterday and the girl put it in a small bag then a bigger one and put in 2 straws. i just took the can out and left the rubbish on the counter

[NanLaew]

31 minutes ago, mok199 said:

i will say this as I walk the beach here in pattaya daily...the majority of litter on the walkways, is from thais...I can specutalte as to why but only thais know for sure..entitlement ,lack of respect,laziness...mabey some of the reasons..BUT..it is beyond me as to how someone can walk away ,leaving their garbage 5 ft from a trash bin...

It is Thai culture.

 

PS. If you leave something beside a waste bin for long enough, it will also grow its own.

[impulse]

Sadly, between fishing boats, local picnickers, storm runoff, and dozens of other sources of flotsam, prevention is decades, dozens of initiatives and a lot of enforcement away.

 

Seems like an effective collection program is the only short term solution while those long term prevention measures slowly take shape.   But someone's got to pay for it.  As long as everyone's playing the blame game, I don't see that happening in my lifetime.  It doesn't matter where it came from.  It's costing the city tourist $$$. 

 

Every time I visit Pattaya, it reminds me how much I like Songkhla.  Where they actually pay people to clean the beaches.  Regardless of where it's coming from.  They're not perfect, but orders of magnitude ahead of Pattaya.

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by impulse

[Anythingleft?]

Thais in the majority just do not care, it's noticable that the only Thais complaining are the ones directly affected through business.
Not just Thailand though there are many other countries that have the same issues, the only real long term solution is education and law enforcement for littering

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[impulse]

2 hours ago, Anythingleft? said:

Thais in the majority just do not care, it's noticable that the only Thais complaining are the ones directly affected through business.
Not just Thailand though there are many other countries that have the same issues, the only real long term solution is education and law enforcement for littering

 

Not true that they don't care.  The Thais I work with often lament the poor conditions at the beaches and other tourist spots. 

 

But they're also pragmatic in their resignation to the fact that the powers that be have higher priorities like lining their own pockets. 

 

Resignation to one's fate isn't the same as not caring what happens.  You can make yourself miserable by complaining about everything you don't have, or you can accept life for what it is and focus on what you do have.  All part of the "Land of Smiles" thing.

 

[Emster23]

The amount of trash on beaches (and about everywhere else) requires a group effort. Everyone pitches in!

[Sakeopete]

6 hours ago, mok199 said:

i will say this as I walk the beach here in pattaya daily...the majority of litter on the footpaths, is from locals and other thais picnicing...I can specutalte as to why but only thais know for sure..entitlement ,lack of respect,laziness...mabey some of the reasons..BUT..it is beyond me as to how someone can walk away ,leaving their garbage 5 ft from a trash bin...

Lol that is what I thought when I was working in Scotland. Have you ever seen the mess people leave near a chipper? Even though the bin is only 2 meters away.

[Curmudgeon1]

6 hours ago, ezzra said:

Tourist boat operators, apart from being a mafia on itself, are

poor hard working people, aching a living price gouging the

poor sods tourists, garbage? not their problem, let someone

else worry about that....

 

Tourist boat profit machines are a larger menace than just garbage polluting. 

Tourist boat operators have taken over the boat ramps in jomtein. They cause noise pollution at 6:30 am  gunning their boat engines off the illegal unlicensed trailers. They create a high risk environment  3-5pm where tractors barrel through the tourists with 3+ton boats bouncing on trailers many too small with almost flat tires, dragged by air polluting illegal unlicensed tractors. Engines gunning from 6:30-9:00 and 3:00 to 5:00 every day. 

Clearly they've been allowed special treatment to get away with a disregard for the safety of everyone and the monopoly of a public dock used exclusively for their profit. Weekends they actually cordon off the docks for their use only. 

[wgdanson]

6 hours ago, mok199 said:

i will say this as I walk the beach here in pattaya daily...the majority of litter on the footpaths, is from locals and other thais picnicing...I can specutalte as to why but only thais know for sure..entitlement ,lack of respect,laziness...mabey some of the reasons..BUT..it is beyond me as to how someone can walk away ,leaving their garbage 5 ft from a trash bin...

I truly believe that Thais do not SEE rubbish if it is not in their direct line of sight, and then they do F all about it. I can walk with the Mrs past a discarded drink carton just outside our 'ouse for days, and she will not say anything. And then calls me stupid for clearing up someone elses rubbish. T I T

[mok199]

yes it seems to be phsycylogical....I wonder if we said..''please litter''or '' don't throw that in the trash'or ''may i have some extra plastic bags with that can of beer'''..,would Thailand become cleaner??....I know in our small,humble home in burriram we had to pay the kids to keep it clean,but alas that plan went south,they just don't want to change..

[smew]

Thais do not care, full stop.

Will talk about it but do absolute nothing. Seen Thais driving seemingly a nice car and throwing papers/rubbishy or small drink carton boxes out. Watch how they sweep their properties: push rubbish garbage out or their land onto the next property: as long as my area is clean : to make any significant impact the schools must educate from young age on. Very sad! 

[Cake Monster]

I have to say, that having lived near Pattaya for the last 11 years, I have seen the amount of trash increase by an incredible amount from back when I first started living here.

 

Sure, there is a certain amount of trash generated by the boat traffic in the bay, but from my experiences, the vast majority of trash  is generated by the local Business,s and the Thai " Tourist " that visit mainly on the weekends.

 

Just take a look around the beaches and other  " touristy Type " places on a Monday morning to witness the amount of trash that the Thais can deposit on their weekend visit to the beach.

 

It is for as reason that Thailand is regarded to be the 8th most polluting nation on the Planet, and this has nothing to do with a few boats in he bay.

 

However, it does have a very significant amount to do with the way they live their lives in general..

 

And if you think the trash issue is a problem on the coastline , take a trip inland with your eyes open.

[Henrik Andersen]

Thai people just don't care and the government blame us tourist 

Wake up Thailand and do something about your dirty country 

P. S. Why we not make a facebook page about dirty Thailand meaby that will wake government up or at least the new tourist will find another country to get a holiday in

I am tried to to live here in jomtien here we can see 2-5 Thai people burning there garbish every day we can't have open windows anymore 

And I live on 13 floor it stinks everywhere 

[sead]

Ofc its the boats lol. I knew that since the first day i moved here. After six years walking all hours i never seen any thrashbag from the boats

[cookieqw]

The Thais take much more to the beach than tourists do, therefore they leave much more, the OP says it’s the tour boat operators, by association that means the garbage is from tourists, once again never a Thai , these people are so good they should have wings

[The manic]

I was impressed by the lack of garbage at Yim Yam beach and Dongtan beach recently 

[MyFriend You]

14 hours ago, mok199 said:

i will say this as I walk the beach here in pattaya daily...the majority of litter on the footpaths, is from locals and other thais picnicing...I can specutalte as to why but only thais know for sure..entitlement ,lack of respect,laziness...mabey some of the reasons..BUT..it is beyond me as to how someone can walk away ,leaving their garbage 5 ft from a trash bin...

Reasons??  All the above.  Its better on Jom Tien Beach, garbage buckets everywhere, people only smoke on the boardwalk, I find it cleaner than Pattaya or Phuket.

[MyFriend You]

5 hours ago, Henrik Andersen said:

Thai people just don't care and the government blame us tourist 

Wake up Thailand and do something about your dirty country 

P. S. Why we not make a facebook page about dirty Thailand meaby that will wake government up or at least the new tourist will find another country to get a holiday in

I am tried to to live here in jomtien here we can see 2-5 Thai people burning there garbish every day we can't have open windows anymore 

And I live on 13 floor it stinks everywhere 

Well I look at the bright side, at least they are burning it and not leaving it out to stink to high heaven.........13th floor and it still smells??   I only live on the 5th floor of out Condo Complex in Jom Tien and never smell burning garbage.  Lucky Me.

[mok199]

7 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

Reasons??  All the above.  Its better on Jom Tien Beach, garbage buckets everywhere, people only smoke on the boardwalk, I find it cleaner than Pattaya or Phuket.

correct,but I believe here on beach rd/freeway,we have been ''blessed'' with the abusive tourists,the Asians who treat Thailand like a garbage dump ,where as jomtieum has more of the europeans who generally respect thailand...I don't like to point fingers but this is my home my backyard,my child plays here....

[mikebell]

20 hours ago, Anythingleft? said:

law enforcement for littering

They have special police to follow smokers about and fine the smokers if they discard a cigarette butt.

[Anythingleft?]

They have special police to follow smokers about and fine the smokers if they discard a cigarette butt.

This thread is about general litter not cigarette butts, not seeing any enforcement for litter....

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[Anythingleft?]

 
Not true that they don't care.  The Thais I work with often lament the poor conditions at the beaches and other tourist spots. 
 
But they're also pragmatic in their resignation to the fact that the powers that be have higher priorities like lining their own pockets. 
 
Resignation to one's fate isn't the same as not caring what happens.  You can make yourself miserable by complaining about everything you don't have, or you can accept life for what it is and focus on what you do have.  All part of the "Land of Smiles" thing.
 

Driving throughout Thailand and seeing the huge amounts of litter of all types lying everywhere I would disagree. If a bin is full the rubbish is slung by the side of it and then gets blown all over, many times the bin is just ignored. The amount of rubbish that you can see would suggest that, no, the majority do not care or even seem to acknowledge the problem to start with

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

[impulse]

5 minutes ago, Anythingleft? said:

Driving throughout Thailand and seeing the huge amounts of litter of all types lying everywhere I would disagree. If a bin is full the rubbish is slung by the side of it and then gets blown all over, many times the bin is just ignored. The amount of rubbish that you can see would suggest that, no, the majority do not care or even seem to acknowledge the problem to start with

 

Even back home, there are enough slobs to make a complete mess of the place.  It doesn't take many.  The difference being that, back home, the government pays people to pick up after the slobs, and the cops go after them. 

 

I agree that Thailand may have a higher percentage of slobs than back home.  But I don't think it's the majority.  I believe it looks that way because the government doesn't pull their weight.  But that may be because I'm mostly familiar with Bangkok and the Thais I work with are professional people.

[The manic]

These power boat operators blast out dreadful crass music as if the beach were a Rap/techno night club. They destroy a potentially pleasant atomosphere.

[The manic]

On 03/01/2018 at 6:05 PM, Henrik Andersen said:

Thai people just don't care and the government blame us tourist 

Wake up Thailand and do something about your dirty country 

P. S. Why we not make a facebook page about dirty Thailand meaby that will wake government up or at least the new tourist will find another country to get a holiday in

I am tried to to live here in jomtien here we can see 2-5 Thai people burning there garbish every day we can't have open windows anymore 

And I live on 13 floor it stinks everywhere 

And it's very dangerous dioxins if plastic is being burnt. But the UK has had a massive increase in Fly tipping on a massive scale in the last few years.