National parks’ ban on plastics

By Karnjana Lao 
Nationgraphics

 

Nationgraphics/Karnjana Lao

 

Starting on August 12, all disposable plastic containers, cutlery and straws will be banned from 154 national parks throughout the country

 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30351915

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-11

In a few parks, there have been signs up for awhile.

 

Excellent news. 

 

Lets hope its followed through. 

A bottle is a container, so no plastic bottles in National Parks?

No way will this be enforced.

Happy to hear about the plastics ban. Good idea.

On a side note, does anyone bother to decipher those Nation graphics. What a jumbled bunch of gobbledygook they are.

This is a nice, 'feel good' policy which will almost certainly not work; policy without enforcement rarely leads to anything, sadly.

 

How many members think this will be enforced?

How many members think fines will be levied?

How many members think that park staff will actually monitor sites?

 

I'd love to see this enforced, but I have lived in Thailand too long to believe that it will be.

 

Unfortunately...

 

Wouldn't it just be easier to ban 7-11 from giving them out in the first place?

Bring your own Panther to shoot to?

Many year ago you had to declare how many plastic bottles you took into Erawan National Park and they'd check you had the same number when you departed. I've no idea of what would happen if you returned with fewer bottles (or more??), but I've only ever seen this practice in this one park.

 

How are the locals going to organise their picnics without plastic? I'll have to go to a National Park soon and observe!  

Nothing will happen. It's just an announcement, first try to tell this to all Thai people.

2 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Excellent news. 

 

Lets hope its followed through. 

In Thailand you can make all the laws in the world.. when the minnions are either lazy or corrupt.. the laws wont have any effect.

i'm all for deterring the use of plastics but they are saying you can't even carry a bottle of water into the parks, i don't think they thought this through

6 hours ago, Bluespunk said:

Excellent news. 

 

Lets hope its followed through. 

I think it is great to ban plastic but as usual Thailand hasn't given this much thought

 

You must have a safe environmentally friendly alternative in place  before you start banning stuff

 

Lets take it to an extreme and ban all plastics from shops supermarkets and market sellers - what then, you must provide an alternative before you start banning stuff

11 minutes ago, smedly said:

I think it is great to ban plastic but as usual Thailand hasn't given this much thought

 

You must have a safe environmentally friendly alternative in place  before you start banning stuff

 

Lets take it to an extreme and ban all plastics from shops supermarkets and market sellers - what then, you must provide an alternative before you start banning stuff

I agree to a certain extent. 

 

I would quite happily ban all single use plastic bags and replace with biodegradable plastics or paper. 

 

Likewise plastic bottles should be replaced with biodegradable plastic or glass. 

 

In the U.K. this summer I ate at a place where it’s single use plates and coffee/hot drink cups were made from biodegradable materials. (Sugarcane I think). Got their suppliers details and will pass on to my place of work. 

 

The only way to reduce the environmental catastrophe that plastic represents, is to reduce our use. 

 

Reuse and recycle are fine but are not a long term solution for me.

 

The real solution is reduction. 

Edited August 11, 20187 yr by Bluespunk

26 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

I agree to a certain extent. 

 

I would quite happily ban all single use plastic bags and replace with biodegradable plastics or paper. 

 

Likewise plastic bottles should be replaced with biodegradable plastic or glass. 

 

In the U.K. this summer I ate at a place where it’s single use plates and coffee/hot drink cups were made from biodegradable materials. (Sugarcane I think). Got their suppliers details and will pass on to my place of work. 

 

The only way to reduce the environmental catastrophe that plastic represents, is to reduce our use. 

 

Reuse and recycle are fine but are not a long term solution for me.

 

The real solution is reduction. 

everything you mention is great but there must a usable alternative in place 

11 minutes ago, smedly said:

everything you mention is great but there must a usable alternative in place 

All those alternatives I mention exist and are useable. 

Edited August 11, 20187 yr by Bluespunk

6 hours ago, madmitch said:

Many year ago you had to declare how many plastic bottles you took into Erawan National Park and they'd check you had the same number when you departed. I've no idea of what would happen if you returned with fewer bottles (or more??), but I've only ever seen this practice in this one park.

 

How are the locals going to organise their picnics without plastic? I'll have to go to a National Park soon and observe!  

QED.

 

???

Was all ready a long time ago, was not working well because none feel responsible for taking care of.

More noise from the loudest country on the planet...hope they recycle that pie chart,printed on plastic...

2 hours ago, smedly said:

everything you mention is great but there must a usable alternative in place 

So far I not seen anyone in Thailand producing 'plastic' bags that are made from natural materials and can degrade without any problems. Other countries are already doing it.

Here's one from India:

 

9 hours ago, cmsally said:

Wouldn't it just be easier to ban 7-11 from giving them out in the first place?

And only today, I noticed on a 7/11 plastic carrier bag the words " 7/11 going Green "

Who are they trying to kid ? 

Best of luck enforcing that ban. 

9 hours ago, madmitch said:

Many year ago you had to declare how many plastic bottles you took into Erawan National Park and they'd check you had the same number when you departed. I've no idea of what would happen if you returned with fewer bottles (or more??), but I've only ever seen this practice in this one park.

 

How are the locals going to organise their picnics without plastic? I'll have to go to a National Park soon and observe!  

They make you pay a deposit on the bottles now and you get it back when you return to the checkpoint.  25 baht when I was there a couple years ago.

Villa Market uses biodegradable bags.  I recently bought some plastic planters from Homepro and they have stickers on them saying they are biodegradable too.

9 hours ago, madmitch said:

Many year ago you had to declare how many plastic bottles you took into Erawan National Park and they'd check you had the same number when you departed. I've no idea of what would happen if you returned with fewer bottles (or more??), but I've only ever seen this practice in this one park.

 

How are the locals going to organise their picnics without plastic? I'll have to go to a National Park soon and observe!  

Now if they can just get rid of the dogs

So what is the solution? What did we do before plastic? Ahhh sunlight soap is on the come back. So who is taking their jars glass bottles and tin cans to the shops so they don't walk out with plastic? If your not doing this its all hot air, saying something to make out your better than others. I remember going to the corner store and buying a pound of Ice VoVo's out of the tub that went into a paper bag. That's how it was done. The way shopping centre's are set up now this would never work. How much plastic are they still selling but the guilt trip is put on the consumer. A crock of sh*t, if you ask me.

 

I am all for reducing pollution but what I am seeing is that we buy out plastic bags now that are bigger and fit 3+ times as much in that the old plastic bags held. The supermarkets in OZ are expected to make $70 million on removing the free bags and selling the new ones to you. I just get 3-4 bags before I shop and crush them up so they come out winkled. I am a bit of a deviant this way.

3 hours ago, overherebc said:

QED.

 

???

Are you going to have dinner in the store. I like your idea.

15 minutes ago, Chris Lawrence said:

Are you going to have dinner in the store. I like your idea.

Not sure what you mean by 'in the store' ??

Be a little bit awkward if you wanted to do a bit of hiking with no water to drink

Enforcement will probably take the usual course.

They haven't even really defined what will and what won't be allowed in even....just another failure by the DNP.

Edited August 13, 20187 yr by kwilco