Saying no to ‘Say No’ campaigns – Tackling Thailand’s plastic bag problem

[Nyezhov]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

Littering is all part of the waste disposal problem.  But I'm old enough to remember a horrible littering and pollution problem "back home" before the government stepped in, increased the littering fines and actually enforced the rules.  As tempting as it is to believe that the folks back home are more environmentally aware (another topic for another day), it was the $500-$2,000 littering fines that were effective at reducing the litter.

 

Years and years ago I represented a guy that tossed a McDonald cup out the drivers side window while driving a car with 200 pounds of bud in the trunk. Wonder why they stopped him.

[kannot]

7 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Was out on my daily dodge the soi dogs push bike ride today.  On return, just outside my moo baan entrance, old boy and his wife were just finishing dumping rice and food bits out for the local pack of mangy soi dogs.  He was shaking the last bits out of his plastic bag, and then threw the bag in the bushes along with the rest of them, satisfied he'd done his good deed for the day. 

just about sums everything up thats wrong eh!! struth....... but I  had the same outside here, Im out in the country, local guy has  food  stall, on his way  home everyday he used to throw his  old rice in bags  close to my house to "take care" of those  shiiitty dogs.

Everyday Id  go out puck up the rice and  put it  in my  rubbish then tie his  plastic  bag to the gate  of the field he used to put it in. 

After a month there were probably 100 bags  tied to the gate, the owner of the gate then arrived, ripped  them all off and  left them on the floor right next to his  gate.............the dog  man did stop feeding them near my  house though, just moved up 500 yards  away

[pokerface1]

Anyone know of a country that has solved the plastic bag problem or at least made a huge dint in the problem. Australian supermarkets recently stopped providing plastic bags and instead offer alternatives. There are still lots of other outlets still giving out plastic bags so I still consider the problem unsolved, but much improved.

[canopy]

1 hour ago, pokerface1 said:

Anyone know of a country that has solved the plastic bag problem

 

This is the exact question Thailand needs to ask because the answer is too many to list. Take Kenya or California for example. And they didn't do it by reducing or charging money for plastic bags. They just made plastic bags illegal. In Kenya getting caught carrying a plastic bag is a million baht fine. In California if you need a bag they will be happy to sell you a RECYCLED PAPER bag, not plastic. Thailand talking about reduction or charging money for plastic bags is total nonsense that doesn't actually solve anything. All they have to do is make them illegal like other countries and they will all go away. Thailand will never wake up. Instead committees will be debating and blabbering for centuries rolling out these laughable ideas everyone knows are useless from the start.

 

Edited March 3, 2019 by canopy

[Oxx]

A few days ago I went to an upmarket supermarket and was caught out that they'd changed their schedule for "no bag" days.  Anyway, I put my shopping into a hand basket and took it to the car.  I was sorely tempted simply to put the handbasket on my back seat and drive away.  I didn't, but I'm sure others less scrupulous than I would.  Can we look forward to the menace of shopping baskets being abandoned all over town?

 

Anyway, I've now noted the three days every month when they won't give out baskets and will simply be shopping elsewhere on those days in future.  Whatever extra profit the supermarket was making by not providing bags will be more than offset by fewer customers.

[SS1]

It seems most of these chains like to create problems for problems, instead of solutions for problems. I am all for reducing plastic waste, but it shouldn't come at the cost of convenience. 

Example: biodegradeable, single use bags? re-useable bottles with deposits? (like Northern countries) or re-useable plastic containers to add your food and return later? 

One thing I've been thinking about is all the plastic they use for the food deli sections, salad bars and "fruit to go" pre-cut fruit that I like to eat. I would be very happy to pay a deposit for a durable, re-useable plastic container where I can collect my food (and weight of the container reduced of the total weight of food). Then as you go to the store next time, you'd return the containers and get a voucher with the deposit value on it. 

For example Paleo Robbie in Bangkok delivers their food in thick, high quality plastic boxes. Every week, you return the boxes back to them and they was them 100% clean and reuse. The system works perfectly. 

[wobalt]

No reason why at these large shopping malls they can't give out biodegradable bag in the same fashion as present and just spread the extra cost over everything they sell. I doubt anyone would really notice/mind if your tin of tuna cost 43 baht instead of 42, the clothing item had an extra 10 baht on it to cover the biodegradable bag cost that it goes in or your tube of toothpaste was one baht more expensive if this was the reason why. Maybe nothing is done because of the same old opaque industry mafia's unwillingness to change anything as vested interests say "No!" 

They don’t have the infrastructure to deal with biodegradable bags.
Many trials at composting sites worked as long you push foreign money into the system. As the money stops the project stopped


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[jonclark]

Supermarkets giving out plastic bags are only part of the picture. Plastic is cheap, hygienic, incredibly useful  and convenient, so weaning people of plastic is not easy so there needs to be a suitable alternative(s) as the first stage. Thailand does not have a nationwide, integrated and clean waste disposal system, so people are left by and large to themselves to dispose of their household waste, which is why is all clogs up the rivers, seas or is burnt. Combined with the fact the plastic has no 'value' .

 

I have always thought that the companies / supermarkets who sell us the crap should be responsible for dealing with their waste. So solution each company with a revenue of over a certain monthly revenue is obliged to buy back any and all plastic waste from the public.

 

1) Fairly soon companies will stop producing so much plastic and look at alternatives as its costing em money to buy it back

2) People will save up and sell all their plastic back to the companies giving it a value, so it isn't thrown away or burnt - this oculd really be a valuable income for some families.

3) If a big supermarket chain is storing plastic rubbish in factories etc, well that is valuable real-estate that should be put to better (more profitable) use, so it becomes in their interest to shift it and dispose of it properly and correctly.

 

Or you can just do as these dutch guys did

 

https://preciousplastic.com/en/index.html

 

[Odysseus123]

6 minutes ago, jonclark said:

Supermarkets giving out plastic bags are only part of the picture. Plastic is cheap, hygienic, incredibly useful  and convenient, so weaning people of plastic is not easy so there needs to be a suitable alternative(s) as the first stage. Thailand does not have a nationwide, integrated and clean waste disposal system, so people are left by and large to themselves to dispose of their household waste, which is why is all clogs up the rivers, seas or is burnt. Combined with the fact the plastic has no 'value' .

 

I have always thought that the companies / supermarkets who sell us the crap should be responsible for dealing with their waste. So solution each company with a revenue of over a certain monthly revenue is obliged to buy back any and all plastic waste from the public.

 

1) Fairly soon companies will stop producing so much plastic and look at alternatives as its costing em money to buy it back

2) People will save up and sell all their plastic back to the companies giving it a value, so it isn't thrown away or burnt - this oculd really be a valuable income for some families.

3) If a big supermarket chain is storing plastic rubbish in factories etc, well that is valuable real-estate that should be put to better (more profitable) use, so it becomes in their interest to shift it and dispose of it properly and correctly.

 

Or you can just do as these dutch guys did

 

https://preciousplastic.com/en/index.html

 

Very good-nay excellent post.

 

5 Stars.

[sanook 1]

Just got back from tesco and got all groceries packed in new paper bags, no moore plastics there. well done tesco il say. 

[stanleycoin]

16 minutes ago, sanook 1 said:

Just got back from tesco and got all groceries packed in new paper bags, no moore plastics there. well done tesco il say. 

yes , they are great on a motor bike.

even better if it's raining !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

Ps. I just use me plastic Makro bag now days.

or shop at Big-C

 

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by stanleycoin

[Oxx]

1 hour ago, sanook 1 said:

Just got back from tesco and got all groceries packed in new paper bags, no moore plastics there. well done tesco il say. 

 

Pretty sure it's just a one day thing and there'll be plastic there again tomorrow.  I think the new days for not giving people the plastic bags they need are the 1st, 4th and 16th of every month.  Just avoid shopping on those days, or go to stores that don't go in for this sort of nonsense.

 

(On the plus side, it sounds like Lotus is giving paper bags.  Some other supermarkets are giving nothing.)

[canopy]

4 hours ago, jonclark said:

there needs to be a suitable alternative(s) as the first stage

1) A lot of people are old enough to remember the days before plastic bags. We all know what the suitable alternatives are and they work real well. So on to the 2nd stage.

 

2) Plenty of places around the world have banned plastic bags. It works. Discussing reductions and you thinking it will eventually solve itself wastes time and unnecessarily pollutes the environment and harms the ecosystem and people. We can make all the plastic bags disappear this year with a ban then move on to the next pressing issue. Other places in the world have already done just that.

 

[Oxx]

30 minutes ago, canopy said:

1) A lot of people are old enough to remember the days before plastic bags. We all know what the suitable alternatives are and they work real well. So on to the 2nd stage.

 

Uh, no.  I remember the days before plastic bags.  The alternatives are dire.  Not waterproof.  Not strong.  Fall apart when moist.  They most certainly don't "work real (sic) well".

 

 

[canopy]

Perhaps operator error. I and the people I know had no such problems and in fact strongly prefer the old materials. Paper based stuff worked a lot better than the plastic. I find the plastic bags rip too easily or spring a leak. Not really reliable enough for my liking even under ideal conditions.

 

[rickudon]

18 hours ago, Oxx said:

 

Uh, no.  I remember the days before plastic bags.  The alternatives are dire.  Not waterproof.  Not strong.  Fall apart when moist.  They most certainly don't "work real (sic) well".

 

 

No, you are either too young to remember, or too old!

 

Back in the early 60's every mother had either a shopping basket or a cloth shopping bag in the UK. Then paper bags came in (strong enough to survive a bit of rain) but eventually plastic. I have used a cloth bag back in the UK for the last 15 years, or a 'bag for life' heavy duty plastic bag. End of problem, unless you are a thoughtless moron who forgets to use one every time you go. Makro sell a bag for about 30 baht. If a 5 baht charge was put on all carrier bags, Thai braind would eventually work out they could save money by having a permanent bag. Charging provides an economic incentive to not use flimsy plastic carrier bags. Worked in Europe and many other countries.