Thailand to finally stop using those annoying plastic seals on water bottles

[zaZa9]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

 

A while back, discussing this same topic, I posted close-up photos of a popular brand where the only way to tell if it had been opened before was to snap it open.  Which is a little too late to return it if it had been refilled.

 

I may have also posted photos of a family of rats playing on top of an opened case of drinking water outside a local 8-12 or other store with a similar name. (Defamation laws, don't you know)

 

I'm going to miss those seals, which are a tiny percent of a percent of the waste problem here in Thailand.  Yet serve at least 2 very useful purposes.

I dont follow this at all !

 

Any water I see has a plastic sleeve that does NOT cover all the cap.

And the cap must be snapped from the ring as well to open .

 

Good riddance to the sleeve !

 

[Odysseus123]

6 minutes ago, zaZa9 said:

I dont follow this at all !

 

Any water I see has a plastic sleeve that does NOT cover all the cap.

And the cap must be snapped from the ring as well to open .

 

Good riddance to the sleeve !

 

Nope...

 

Unless you want to spend your days on a Thunder Box.

 

The place is filthy and putrid enough as it is so i like the (fake) seals.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Odysseus123

[m Stender]

when will the supermarkets stop to use hundrets of plastic bags just for small shoppings I guess the amount of plastic bags could easely be cut to less than half of what are used now

[metisdead]

A profane troll post has been removed. 

[zaZa9]

24 minutes ago, Odysseus123 said:

Nope...

 

Unless you want to spend your days on a Thunder Box.

 

The place is filthy and putrid enough as it is so i like the (fake) seals.

Dont understand this either ...

I buy Nestles at 7 baht nearly every day  for my walk , and over 10 years here now ... the top is NOT covered by the sleeve. In fact the sleeve could hold a fine amount of rat urine quite well !

I very rarely have an upset stomach.

Edited February 14, 2018 by zaZa9

[TPUBON]

This is good news. Now you can go into a 7/11, purchase a bottle of water and not have to worry about that little piece of plastic polluting the environment. Then they throw the bottle into a plastic bag and you are on your way.

[Dumbastheycome]

I am unconvinced it is  a  good  thing. I  have witnessed the trick of  reconstructing  the  secondary seal with the tip of a soldering  iron !  Almost  undetectable. Not  so easy  to  replace  the shrink wrap outer seal.

[oldlakey]

4 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Bottles are recyclable, the annoying seals not.

They also float better than the Titanic

[impulse]

37 minutes ago, zaZa9 said:

I dont follow this at all !

 

Any water I see has a plastic sleeve that does NOT cover all the cap.

And the cap must be snapped from the ring as well to open .

 

Good riddance to the sleeve !

Nope.  But it does cover the interface between the cap and the bottle, which is where any rat pee will come into play.  Capillary action and all...  Wicking it right into the area where my lips will be.  Or hers...

 

There's no way to tell visually whether the cap's been snapped from the ring until you actually remove the cap.  And I dare you to try to return a bottle after you've removed the cap- even if you claim the cap didn't snap.  In a country like Thailand where 300 baht is a decent wage, that's just too much temptation to supplement that kind of income with just 10-20 bottles scrounged up and refilled each day.

 

Besides, what's the big nuisance with the sleeve?  9 times out of 10, it comes off with the cap when I twist the cap off- no special effort required.  It goes into my pocket with all the other lint that's going to get binned when I get home that night.  Along with those 5-10 receipts that end up in there because I am militant about not littering.  The 1 in 10 when I have to use my fingernail has never been a problem, either.

[eliotness]

Only the very small tip of a very large iceberg. Plasic bags are the real problem.

[watcharacters]

5 hours ago, DavoTheGun said:

This was announced 2 Years ago, nothing happened, will not hold my breath!

 

 

 

 

Are you sure about that?

 

 

 

[9KPhalak]

I make it a challenge and try to get the seal off in one piece.  Though inevitably I tear it and a small piece falls to the floor which I have to bend over and pick up. 

[ttrd]

13 minutes ago, 9KPhalak said:

I make it a challenge and try to get the seal off in one piece.  Though inevitably I tear it and a small piece falls to the floor which I have to bend over and pick up. 

Be aware of which soi to NOT open Your water bottle since it will require you to bend over....

Edited February 14, 2018 by ttrd

[hugocnx]

Next step hopefully removing sealing caps from condiment bottles that are already sealed once or twice.

[Lacessit]

I reuse water bottles by rinsing and refilling them with boiled water from one of the street reverse osmosis units. Whether the top has a plastic seal is irrelevant to me.

[tifino]

1 minute ago, hugocnx said:

Next step hopefully removing sealing caps from condiment bottles that are already sealed once or twice.

 

yeah! - and that film of plastic lined foil, on some juices, and medications, will be the end of the world

[metisdead]

An off topic post has been removed. 

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

About time.

But the whole world needs to get on this bus of plastic pollution.

[balo]

12 hours ago, barryofthailand said:

Tesco Bottled water does not have any plastic seals

It all tap water anyway , no need. 

 

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Bottles are recyclable, the annoying seals not.

I know they get collected, but do the companies that churn them out by the millions, actually incorporate any recycling? I see piles of trash and plastic bottles are amongst it.

[ttrd]

3 hours ago, balo said:

It all tap water anyway , no need. 

 

5555 - Your assertion may be more near the reality than you actually want to believe....

[Italian guy]

18 hours ago, tifino said:

well, this'll make it much easier for local business, in refilling recycled bottles, without needing to bother about defeating any tamperpoof

A tiny paper seal would do

[impulse]

4 hours ago, jacko45k said:

I know they get collected, but do the companies that churn them out by the millions, actually incorporate any recycling? I see piles of trash and plastic bottles are amongst it.

 

I'm impressed by how much does get recycled in LOS.  My household trash probably goes through 3 or 4 levels of recycling collectors before it goes into the hydraulic truck.  First, the apartment building employees take out anything that's actually usable -and re-sellable-, but binned for lack of need on my part.  Then they take out the cardboard and plastic bottles.  And then the guys in the truck spread it all out on the street and spend a while scrounging through and separating it into several burlap sacks based on some mysterious criteria.  (Mysterious to me because they do it around 03:00 and the stench keeps me at a distance anyway).  The privacy issue of apartment employees scrounging through my trash is another topic for another thread.

 

At a recent Plastics Trade Show at BITEC, I asked a guy selling the blow molders how much to costs to make a typical drinking water bottle and was surprised that he told me it cost over a baht.  1.8 baht is the number that sticks in my mind, but I'm old and my brain leaks.  I doubt you'd see many scroungers for bottles in countries where wages are high, but it seems that millions of Thai's feed their families -or at least supplement their income- by collecting and recycling the bottles.  I've actually gotten afoul of some locals when they thought I was poaching their area, picking up some bottles to throw in the bin.

 

That's obviously not addressing the seals under discussion, or the ubiquitous plastic bags.  But they're not the problem really.  Thailand's poor waste management (which is a symptom of a corrupt culture and economic situation) is the problem.  The 1/8 (to 1/2- I redid my napkin calcs)  pound of bottle seals I go through in a year isn't a significant addition to my carbon footprint.  As long as they're disposed of properly.  I can do my part, but...

 

Edited February 15, 2018 by impulse

[Blackheart1916]

20 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

Bottles are recyclable, the annoying seals not.

Yeah , and the recycling program is going great guns ha ha 

[spidermike007]

Plastic is no doubt convenient, but it is the scourge of the planet. Most Thais think it is the greatest thing in the world, and there are no consequences for it's use.

 

A change in consciousness must start at the most basic level. Most Thais think plastic is the best thing ever invented, and the percentage of Thais that even consider the negative ramifications of plastic is incredibly small. This requires some education. I always do two things to avoid the consumption of plastic.

 

1. I bring re-usable bags with me every time I go shopping. I use the larger shopping bags I buy in the US, which are made of recycled materials. Most of the clerks have to be dealt with. Even when they see my bag, they still start putting the stuff in plastic. I always mai sai toom. No plastic! Then they start loading up my bag. Most look at me like I am from Mars. Do I care? Not one iota. About 1% thank me, and get it. Not many do. My Thai wife does not like bringing the bags to the store. I force her to. By now, she expects it, and sometimes even asks if I have any bags in the car, or on the motorbike. Same with the water bottles. It used to embarrass her. Now, it is second nature, as I have been doing this for so long, she expects it. So, if a Thai can be conditioned to follow these simple principals, then anyone can. 

 

2. I bring a bottle of water with me, every time I go to a restaurant. I refill my plastic bottles from the 20 liter bottles at home. It is easy. I never buy bottled water at a restaurant. This saves 300-600 bottles a year. I use a plastic bottle dozens of times. I never get any flack from the restaurants. Only once did someone say something to me. She said you cannot bring you own water. My response was if you serve the water in a glass bottle, and I do not have to consume a plastic bottle, I am happy to pay for that. She was lost. I told her to leave and get me my food. She went away. 

 

We simply cannot say we are concerned about the environment, and then do nothing about it. Action demonstrates commitment. Lack of action demonstrates nothing. 

 

Lastly, restaurants can demonstrate their commitment, by serving drinking water from the 20 liter bottles. It saves alot of plastic. They lose a small amount of revenue, by not selling thousands of bottles of water. But, their operation is still profitable, and they are making a real difference. 

[seancbk]

25 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Plastic is no doubt convenient, but it is the scourge of the planet. Most Thais think it is the greatest thing in the world, and there are no consequences for it's use.

 

A change in consciousness must start at the most basic level. Most Thais think plastic is the best thing ever invented, and the percentage of Thais that even consider the negative ramifications of plastic is incredibly small. This requires some education. I always do two things to avoid the consumption of plastic.

 

1. I bring re-usable bags with me every time I go shopping. I use the larger shopping bags I buy in the US, which are made of recycled materials. Most of the clerks have to be dealt with. Even when they see my bag, they still start putting the stuff in plastic. I always mai sai toom. No plastic! Then they start loading up my bag. Most look at me like I am from Mars. Do I care? Not one iota. About 1% thank me, and get it. Not many do. My Thai wife does not like bringing the bags to the store. I force her to. By now, she expects it, and sometimes even asks if I have any bags in the car, or on the motorbike. Same with the water bottles. It used to embarrass her. Now, it is second nature, as I have been doing this for so long, she expects it. So, if a Thai can be conditioned to follow these simple principals, then anyone can. 

 

2. I bring a bottle of water with me, every time I go to a restaurant. I refill my plastic bottles from the 20 liter bottles at home. It is easy. I never buy bottled water at a restaurant. This saves 300-600 bottles a year. I use a plastic bottle dozens of times. I never get any flack from the restaurants. Only once did someone say something to me. She said you cannot bring you own water. My response was if you serve the water in a glass bottle, and I do not have to consume a plastic bottle, I am happy to pay for that. She was lost. I told her to leave and get me my food. She went away. 

 

We simply cannot say we are concerned about the environment, and then do nothing about it. Action demonstrates commitment. Lack of action demonstrates nothing. 

 

Lastly, restaurants can demonstrate their commitment, by serving drinking water from the 20 liter bottles. It saves alot of plastic. They lose a small amount of revenue, by not selling thousands of bottles of water. But, their operation is still profitable, and they are making a real difference. 

My very good friend Craig Leeson wrote, directed and starred in the award winning film "A Plastic Ocean"  which has been helping to teach people all over the world about the damage plastic is doing to the marine ecosystem.

If you are interested here are some links :- 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5203824/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
 

 

[rwill]

April Fools day how appropriate!

 

 

[DavoTheGun]

On 2/14/2018 at 7:35 PM, watcharacters said:

 

 

 

Are you sure about that?

 

 

 

Very Sure!

[ravip]

On 2/14/2018 at 1:57 PM, impulse said:

Watch the consumption of straws skyrocket now that there won't be seals to keep rat pee off the caps.

 

Along with reports of foul tasting bottled water as some enterprising locals refill the bottles with tap water and pocket the money that would have gone into the 7/11 cash register if they had to match inventory like they do now.  Refill 30 bottles at 7 baht each and a crafty store clerk could pocket a 50% increase in their take-home.  And the inventory will still tally...

 

A well meaning plan.  But poorly thought out.

 

WOW! What a dangerous country - no safe drinking water to be found!

[wgdanson]

On 2/14/2018 at 5:09 PM, wavemanwww said:

LOL I got that number from google search. Sorry it does not include illegal immigrants etc

 

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/thailand-population/

From YOUR Google Link................

• The current population of Thailand is 69,128,804 as of Thursday, February 15, 2018, based on the latest United Nations estimates.

 

But it will probably increase in October due to the recent Valentine's Day.