Plastic ban makes a difference in Krabi marine park

By The Nation

 

 

Thais have been full of praise online for tourists using traditional “pinto thao” food containers instead of plastic bags to take their picnic meals into Krabi’s Than Bok Khorani Marine National Park.

 

Park officials were at the same time handing out cloth bags to visitors, in response to a Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment ban on plastic bags and foam containers at all 154 national parks.

 

Among those cheering the development was noted marine expert Assistant Professor Thon Thamrongnawasawat, who shared the story on Faceook on Monday morning, drawing 12,000 “likes”.

 

Thon said he appreciated how park officials, tour operators and visitors both Thai and foreign had made what had been “impossible in the past” possible today.

 

The ministry’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation imposed the ban on single-use plastic at all 154 national parks and seven zoos on August 12, seeking to reduce an estimated 45 quadrillion pieces of plastic discarded every year in Thailand.

 

A park official posted photos on Facebook showing many visitors to Than Bok Khorani Marine Park having picnics on the beach from multi-deck pinto thao containers they’d prepared themselves or received from their tour operators.

 

Park chief Weerasak Srisajjang told his crew to also lend tourists cloth bags to use while in the park, which reportedly gets at least 1,000 visitors a day.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30353039

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-27

It has taken a long time for them to get this going. I have been doing this for almost 20 years in Tarutao Marine National Park. I never used single use products in all the thousands of dive trips we did in the park. Neither did most of the foreign owned dive shops. It was always the locals that used styrofoam and disposable water bottles. We always brought the 20 liter jugs of water and reusable glasses with us. 

Glad to see their tackling the problem. Kudos to Trash Heroes for cleaning the beaches and pushing for this initiative.

Must be hard work to clean all the bowls...why not use a bentoset box like in Fuji? 

1 hour ago, sabyedee said:

It has taken a long time for them to get this going. I have been doing this for almost 20 years in Tarutao Marine National Park. I never used single use products in all the thousands of dive trips we did in the park. Neither did most of the foreign owned dive shops. It was always the locals that used styrofoam and disposable water bottles. We always brought the 20 liter jugs of water and reusable glasses with us. 

Glad to see their tackling the problem. Kudos to Trash Heroes for cleaning the beaches and pushing for this initiative.

It needs to catch on in Trang Province

3 hours ago, Thian said:

Must be hard work to clean all the bowls...why not use a bentoset box like in Fuji? 

What ?

Dont they wash Bento boxes ??

 

Great initiative ... so much right about the old ways.

They are 'Tiffen Boxes'  in India. 

Still used widely.

Time for 'take-aways' to give an extra scoop to those who bring their own containers and bags !

1 hour ago, zaZa9 said:

What ?

Dont they wash Bento boxes ??

 

Great initiative ... so much right about the old ways.

They are 'Tiffen Boxes'  in India. 

Still used widely.

Time for 'take-aways' to give an extra scoop to those who bring their own containers and bags !

To be honest i 've never seen Thai using those, in India they all used those and even had a deliverysystem so the men can get a fresh homecooked lunch delivered at work by couriers, every day again.

 

 

Pintos are a great alternative.  They were fine before plastic so why not now.  I've seen very few people using them and some users are foreigners.  They are used in some Thai restaurants in the UK.  My daughter runs a Thai restaurant called 'Pinto Thai' in Putney.

To quote, "One small step for man...", at last.

 

'nuf sed.

Had mine for years. Love the old enamelware. Not watertight for soup and curries, so you need to be careful. Can also get locking Japanese steel bento containers with a gasket that are watertight.