13 minutes ago, ebonykap said:

I think their alternative cloth bags had all gone so the customers had the option of either leaving their items or carrying them in their arms.

I wonder how many customers and money they lost ?

The misses is selling fruit shakes and juices on the market. Using roughly 70 cups, lids and straws a day.
Paper cups are not available in these sizes and taste like shit too.

We're willing to change, but what options are there? Recyclable/deposit money cups are no option as most customers won't stay that long.

Everyone yelling change, but there is no alternative.

3 minutes ago, johng said:

I wonder how many customers and money they lost ?

I get your point, but hopefully it might teach some of them to look, listen and learn, rather than ignore. I'm sure quite a few were aware of Environment Day but thought they would try their hand. I'm happy they lucked out.

I don't shop at Tops very often, but I will go there more often in the future considering their strong stance with this.

22 minutes ago, johng said:

What will they put  hot noodles and curry take a ways in ?

 what will the cold/frozen things that "sweat" in a hot tropical climate do to a paper bag

especially hanging on a motorbike mirror at 60KPH ?

Problem solved. Environmentally friendly packaging of all types is already out there. There are really neat and clever containers and some offer even thermos qualities in addition. The trouble is you don't want a good package for your noodles and takeaways that works perfectly on a motorbike at high speed and is environmentally friendly to boot. What you and virtually everyone else actually want is the cheapest package, whatever that is. Just think about it for a second. If grocery store offer plastic bags for 20 baht each or paper for 20.25 baht each no one will ask for paper. Turn it around? Everyone wants paper. Cost wins, quality of packaging doesn't matter.

 

Much though I wish otherwise, Thailand has as much chance of shunning plastic as it does enforcing the road laws.

 

I was happy to see Tesco using brown paper bags yesterday, but less happy to follow a motorcycle and sidecar for about 1km along a winding road a few hundred yards out of the Tesco carpark. The old male driver was taking his old wife home (presumably, judging from the shopping she was sitting on). Every hundred yards or so, she unwrapped yet more food, tossing the (mainly plastic or so it seemed to me) packaging on the road verge, to be picked up by someone else. Thai-style.

 

The problem for Thailand is that chickens are coming home to roost, which was predicatble but unpredicted. With the big change-over has come increased crime, increasing poverty, increasing aggression (but only if 10 on 1 - Thai-style) and the gradual but accelerating collapse of what Thais fondly imagine used to be their culture, but which was merely someone else's wetdream, suggestion-induced by unscrupulous hangers-on, someone else's image of themselves.

 

Good luck Thailand, with the war on plastic, but I fear it will have as much success as any other of their conflicts, they lose miserably and go right ahead to erect a monument immortalising their imagined victory.

 

 

Edited December 5, 20187 yr by HalfLight

3 hours ago, Aupee said:

Your  name may be fforest but the forest will be a garbage heap of plastic. "Oh look I'm the only one in step, !?" yes another plastic bag  please

He means it as in Forrest Gump...

5 minutes ago, canopy said:

What you and virtually everyone else actually want is the cheapest package, whatever that is.

Yes..no point having a super paper bag  to put your hot noodles in if it costs  100 baht !!

Plastic bags are cheap and do the job well..its the disposal of them that is "the problem"

so why not reward people returning plastic bags to a recycling center  instead of punishing  everyone for using the most practical,cheap readily available solution.....

in other words carrot instead of stick.

They're already rolling out the cardboard straws here in California.  Not bad, just got to get used to sucking on paper, not plastic.

 

And plastic bags are 3B each here.  Most people bring reusable bags. ????

5 hours ago, fforest1 said:

I like my plastic....I would be very upset and make a scene too if a store did not have plastic bags for my purchase.....Plastic works...Its just that simple...

That's your legacy to the next generation.. so thoughtful...

<deleted> the rest I'm ok.

Plastic works... if only it was that simple, truth is IT DOESN'T WORK !!!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-06/diver-films-wave-of-plastic-pollution-off-bali-coast/9508662

More importantly we all need to start disposing of plastic properly, not just drop it whenever

we no longer need.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

IT IS important for people to make small changes in their daily lives in order to cut down on the huge amount of plastic waste being generated, according to experts involved in fighting the menace.

Imho, it's an amazing psy-op.  Blame the end-users for the use of plastics.  What a joke.

The "end-plastics" message should be directed at retailers.  If retailers "end plastic" then all of their consumers no longer consume plastic.  That's how you end the use of plastic.  This eco-day where retailers urge consumers not to use plastic is disingenuous nonsense and nothing but marketing. 

I came from a day and age where paper was used for packaging.  Why did that change?  The petro-chemical industry, which produces plastics, made plastics an economically attractive incentive to change.  Plastic takes up less storage space, is cheaper to produce per unit, so retailers dumped paper and changed to plastics. The incentive to change at the retail level is all about lower costs and higher profits. Consumers didn't lobby retailers to change.  Consumers are along for the ride.

So the governments lobby individual consumers to "change their evil plastic consuming ways" to save the eco-system.  But the petro-chemical industry still pumps out plastic products to retailers who then provide them to end-consumers.  Retailers are not going to willingly change to a higher cost per unit packaging such as papers.  They lose money, profits go down. So instead, one day a year, with smiles on their employees faces, they urge you - dear consumer - to stop being a selfish plastic user!!!
"It's all your fault consumers!  We're trying to educate you."  And no one gets the joke.

The use of plastics starts and ends at the level of retail businesses. 

The most simply way to change the habit of people: charge money for plastic bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Money is the only thing most people understand. Out of their pocket , into their brain!!!!!!!!!!!!

6 minutes ago, manhood said:

The most simply way to change the habit of people: charge money for plastic bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Money is the only thing most people understand. Out of their pocket , into their brain!!!!!!!!!!!!

Agree plastic bags should be charged for how about .......

Thais ...1 Baht

Non Thais... 5 Baht.

 

 

4 hours ago, Lungstib said:

I am giving up plastic. Easy, right? No more buying sliced bread, pots of yogurt, jugs of milk, pot noodles and jok, cartons of eggs, bottles of soft drinks or jars of biscuits. Cant have khao man gai or gai yang + som tam from the local shops.

Plastic bags and bottles did not exist until the 1940's , so how did the country survive before that? 

 

2 hours ago, Mark35 said:

We're willing to change, but what options are there? Recyclable/deposit money cups are no option as most customers won't stay that long.

Everyone yelling change, but there is no alternative.

Biodegradable plastic  :

Biodegradable plastic is plastic that decomposes naturally in the environment. This is achieved when microorganisms in the environment metabolize and break down the structure of biodegradable plastic. The end result is one which is less harmful to the environment than traditional plastics.

Not using plastic grocery bags is just the first step of a long, long journey. Next up - educate workers like 7-11 employees not to stuff a plastic straw wrapped in a plastic sheath into any purchase that has a can/bottle/pack of edible liquid in it. I went to a 'little zoo cafe' the other day and while I commend them for handing out wooden stirrers as souvenirs, the noble intention of a wooden stirrer is defeated by the plastic sheath it came in.

 

Next, manufacturers need to find alternative ways to package their products. Almost everything is packaged in plastic - from the loaf of bread to drink bottles and so on. Taking this first step i.e. encouraging consumers to say 'no' to plastics is a good start. I hope the entire supply chain preceding consumers adopt a no-plastic policy - the sooner the better.

1 hour ago, balo said:

so how did the country survive before that?  

Banana leaves  ????

Here's another little suggestion to clean up the country: Fix the %¤#¤%¤%""!#" garbage collection system and introduce recycling, put garbage bins everywhere and start tazing the somchais that won't use them. 50 lashes and two hours of public caning for repeat offenders. Nothing gets done here unless it's enforced with extreme prejudice.

17 minutes ago, johng said:

Banana leaves  ????

They're still used where I live.

Just came out of a Rimping Supermarket, Wednesday is no plastics day. The cashier was not amused as I took the plastic wrapping off 24 rolls of toilet paper at the checkout ( lost in translation).

11 hours ago, akirasan said:

No plastic in this photo..job well done

Wrong! The bread, the carrots, and the indetermimate stuff at the back are all in poly bags!

And should we put our garbage in cloth bags?

Sent from my SM-G965F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

1 hour ago, Grusa said:

Wrong! The bread, the carrots, and the indetermimate stuff at the back are all in poly bags!

 

56 minutes ago, birddogger said:

And should we put our garbage in cloth bags?

No just put it outside and burn it  , like the locals do . 

 

12 hours ago, fforest1 said:

I like my plastic....I would be very upset and make a scene too if a store did not have plastic bags for my purchase.....Plastic works...Its just that simple...

It works really well to choke and poison everything in the sea and eventually through the food chain works well all the way to you enjoying your plastic infected seafood that you first bought wrapped in plastic.

I hope to see everyone around the world use less plastic. The countries should also

make a big effort to gather the plastic waste and do something with it.  Japan uses lots

and maybe could figure out how to squeeze it into big objects or melt it into large floats and

box containers. Something has to be done, and even the laziest expats could make an effort

instead of trying to be 555,  funny and say they still need their plastic bags..

Geezer

Seem to be rather obsessed with the current fashion of anything anti-plastic, of late.

 

Wonder how long this surface trend might last.

On 12/5/2018 at 6:44 AM, fforest1 said:

I like my plastic....I would be very upset and make a scene too if a store did not have plastic bags for my purchase.....Plastic works...Its just that simple...

how would you like your plastic wrapped around your throat and suffocate you? Cause that's what's all that plastic you throw away is doing to animals... You not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. You being an idiot doesn't mean you're not causing damage. 

If every Thai office worker were to bring their own Yeti cups (or whatever brand of their choosing), that would also highly reduce the number of plastic cups used. Some people even buy 2 cold, sweet drinks per day, meaning 2 cups per day, for 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year. 1 person could use 624 cups a year. Toyota has thousands of workers. Imagine the numbers. 

 

It's not the plastic bags that is the problem, it's the mindset. Re-education in all social levels is desperately needed in Thailand.