23 hours ago, mok199 said:

How do you plan on changing the eating habbits of an entire nation,that eats 3 meals a day served takeout style,in plastic and foam .....

A bit challenging one can say ...

 

Actually nothing wrong with the eating habit's, it is the take-away serving habit's that need to be changed and to manage that it must be created and made available environment friendly price competitive alternatives not containing plastic, foam or other non eco friendly materials.

 

The use of plastic/foam takeaway containers is not a Thai phenom - its widely used all over the world so to expect that Thailand that are a bit behind in the most ways will be a trendsetter when it comes to phase out plastic and foam is probably a bit much to ask - don't you think ... ????...

 

 

On 11/1/2019 at 8:40 AM, Lungstib said:

Dont tell me, they will also have skills to match the new EEC, travel by high speed trains, drive perfectly and corruption will come to a halt. What year was that?

The year 5555

10 hours ago, brian2f2f said:

Theyd still pay it as its better then actually having to work. Its better in a thais eyes to pay money so can be lazy. 

Not if the price was high enough so as to deter the average consumer from such lazy, short-sighted ways. 

On 11/1/2019 at 5:13 PM, Thian said:

They can save so much plastic by not using plastic water bottles....we use a waterfilter at home and that works great.

 

But the refill filters are expensive, they can be made much cheaper....

I don't use a filter. Bangkok water is chlorinated. I add half drop extra per liter. Nothing wrong with the water beei g drinking it in BKK for 15 years in many locations.

 

Instead of selling me tap water bottled by Coke and the like. Charge me 2b for ice and a plastic glass in the food courts. Problem solved. Many food courts used to have water chillers and glasses but removed to sell plastic bottles and soda with plastics.

 

1 hour ago, Number 6 said:

I don't use a filter. Bangkok water is chlorinated. I add half drop extra per liter. Nothing wrong with the water beei g drinking it in BKK for 15 years in many locations.

 

Instead of selling me tap water bottled by Coke and the like. Charge me 2b for ice and a plastic glass in the food courts. Problem solved. Many food courts used to have water chillers and glasses but removed to sell plastic bottles and soda with plastics.

 

Before the big flooding i also drank water from the tap without filter. Did that for many years.

Just talk, they could just announce a ban on plastic single use shopping bags wef 1.1.2021  Not hard really!!

I'm all for reducing waste, but much of this is knee-jerk virtue signalling, apparently ignorant of the actual life-cycle studies of products. 

 

Take plastic grocery bags.  Several serious studies of life-cycle use of these and the alternatives ("multiple-use" plastic or cloth bags) show that you need to use the alternatives a thousand or more times for the overall environmental footprint (including production, recycling, disposal, etc.) to be less than today's single-use plastic grocery bags.  Also, in my household (and all Thai households I know of), plastic grocery/7-11/Big C bags are not single use; they're also used as garbage bags, toilet-tissue waste bags, etc.  Outlaw plastic grocery bags and what?, people are going to need to buy dedicated plastic garbage bags?  Not much overall improvement.

And the small clear plastic bags tens of millions of people take away street food in every day?

 

All very well for the ministry and its agencies to do away with its own use of single-use plastics, but it will need to do some serious thinking with other ministries and with parliament for a practical, cost-effective way to do it on a national scale.
 

13 hours ago, JTXR said:

I'm all for reducing waste, but much of this is knee-jerk virtue signalling, apparently ignorant of the actual life-cycle studies of products. 

 

Take plastic grocery bags.  Several serious studies of life-cycle use of these and the alternatives ("multiple-use" plastic or cloth bags) show that you need to use the alternatives a thousand or more times for the overall environmental footprint (including production, recycling, disposal, etc.) to be less than today's single-use plastic grocery bags.  Also, in my household (and all Thai households I know of), plastic grocery/7-11/Big C bags are not single use; they're also used as garbage bags, toilet-tissue waste bags, etc.  Outlaw plastic grocery bags and what?, people are going to need to buy dedicated plastic garbage bags?  Not much overall improvement.

And the small clear plastic bags tens of millions of people take away street food in every day?

 

All very well for the ministry and its agencies to do away with its own use of single-use plastics, but it will need to do some serious thinking with other ministries and with parliament for a practical, cost-effective way to do it on a national scale.
 

Totally agree.

 

I will then be forced to purchase trash and food bags. Now, I make every effort to second and third use the bags.

 

There is lots of unnecessary plastic on the streets and thrown in the streets. Thailand could definitely develop a comprehensive plan.

 

Some method of disposing of wet food so it doesn't go in garbage trucks and then on the roads. Positively unsanitary and disgusting.

On 11/1/2019 at 5:13 PM, Thian said:

They can save so much plastic by not using plastic water bottles....we use a waterfilter at home and that works great.

 

But the refill filters are expensive, they can be made much cheaper....

Agreed. The cost of replacement cartridge filters is ludicrous.

 

The Amway filter in my rental house has a six month filter that costs over $100 AND requires a visit from a dealer in Phetchaburi to install it. You can order the filter and install it yourself but you can't reset the system timer like the dealer can. So the unit beeps continuously while you take filtered water. I unplugged the power to it to stop that nonsense.

 

ThaiWatsadu has a brand of Japanese 3 stage compact filter system for 7000฿ that sells small bags of powder very cheap. You must manually empty the spent powder from each  chamber and refill with new periodically, based on your usage. It's a SS high quality system that I'll purchase when I move into the house I'm buying.

 

It's worth calculating how long it takes to pay for the system in cartridge savings but it's enough for me to not be coerced into the razor-and-blades trap.

You know that feeling, that you see 7-11 staff instantly grabbing for the plastic bags as if it were a reflex on complete autopilot????

5 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

Agreed. The cost of replacement cartridge filters is ludicrous.

 

The Amway filter in my rental house has a six month filter that costs over $100 AND requires a visit from a dealer in Phetchaburi to install it. You can order the filter and install it yourself but you can't reset the system timer like the dealer can. So the unit beeps continuously while you take filtered water. I unplugged the power to it to stop that nonsense.

 

ThaiWatsadu has a brand of Japanese 3 stage compact filter system for 7000฿ that sells small bags of powder very cheap. You must manually empty the spent powder from each  chamber and refill with new periodically, based on your usage. It's a SS high quality system that I'll purchase when I move into the house I'm buying.

 

It's worth calculating how long it takes to pay for the system in cartridge savings but it's enough for me to not be coerced into the razor-and-blades trap.

The filling of those waterfilters is sold in plastic bags at homepro but i can't open my cartridges....to let them change it costs 3-4000 baht...and last time the guy even put a new power adapter on the bill (1400 baht) which we didn't get because the old one was still working (for the UV-light).

 

Also he didn't change the waterhose inside the filterbox so after he was gone for an hour the hole kitchen was flooded by a broken hose...

 

And those hoses are of very low quality, best is to change them every 2 years...they don't sell high quality ones. We already had the hose broken after some years.

 

An expensive waterfilter is useless by the way, they all work the same way...(only the ones with UV-light are more advanced but that's just a lightbulb which works on low voltage DC.)...it's placed in the last cartridge.

 

The first 3 cartridges are just sand, charcoal and something else...nothing special.

 

The reason many Thai can't afford a waterfilter is those extreme prices for the cartridges....If they all had a waterfilter they wouldn't need to buy plastic bottles all days long.

3 minutes ago, Thian said:

An expensive waterfilter is useless by the way, they all work the same way...(only the ones with UV-light are more advanced but that's just a lightbulb which works on low voltage DC.)...it's placed in the last cartridge.

Actually they do not all work the same way - RO filters are much more effective and with UV even better and they do not cost any more than most 3 stage physical filter types.  RO is what you buy in bottles but you can get home systems for less than 3,000 baht which include the normal pre-filters that are home replaceable.  Even with Bangkok water the taste will be much better using such a unit.  Below is an example of simple but very effective unit.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/unipure-5-ro-50gpd-1-i308329-s322405.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.37.1a566a57rQdICU&search=1

11 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Actually they do not all work the same way - RO filters are much more effective and with UV even better and they do not cost any more than most 3 stage physical filter types.  RO is what you buy in bottles but you can get home systems for less than 3,000 baht which include the normal pre-filters that are home replaceable.  Even with Bangkok water the taste will be much better using such a unit.  Below is an example of simple but very effective unit.

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/unipure-5-ro-50gpd-1-i308329-s322405.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.37.1a566a57rQdICU&search=1

Does that reverse osmosis thing also need maintenance?  I want to make our house maintenance free/simple, also the airconditioners.

2 minutes ago, Thian said:

Does that reverse osmosis thing also need maintenance?  I want to make our house maintenance free/simple, also the airconditioners.

Everything requires maintenance (including our bodies) but as said it can be done by owner and should be nothing more than annual change of filter carts (and the RO (most expensive) can probably last two years with normal home usage.  For AC very important to not only clean filters every few weeks but to have professionally cleaned every six months or so for energy efficient operation and to avoid outages (although time will vary by amount of dirt in room - teenagers seem to make a lot).  

The simplest solution to really clean water is the gallon jugs from 7-11....Or home delivery.....

 

I have given up on the street machines that filter water....The quality is honestly not great......

23 minutes ago, Thian said:

The filling of those waterfilters is sold in plastic bags at homepro but i can't open my cartridges....to let them change it costs 3-4000 baht...and last time the guy even put a new power adapter on the bill (1400 baht) which we didn't get because the old one was still working (for the UV-light).

 

Also he didn't change the waterhose inside the filterbox so after he was gone for an hour the hole kitchen was flooded by a broken hose...

 

And those hoses are of very low quality, best is to change them every 2 years...they don't sell high quality ones. We already had the hose broken after some years.

 

An expensive waterfilter is useless by the way, they all work the same way...(only the ones with UV-light are more advanced but that's just a lightbulb which works on low voltage DC.)...it's placed in the last cartridge.

 

The first 3 cartridges are just sand, charcoal and something else...nothing special.

 

The reason many Thai can't afford a waterfilter is those extreme prices for the cartridges....If they all had a waterfilter they wouldn't need to buy plastic bottles all days long.

The a way filter is a bit difficult to remove, but it can be done with common tools, and then cleaned with salt and scrubbing. I remove the large charcoal filter and scrub the outside of it every six months but refuse on principle to replace it since I'm leaving the house soon.

 

Their hose are junk, as you said. I went to a local hardware store and bought much better hoses the same size for a few baht.

The UV light is largely a gimmick but does add slight value though unnecessary. One of the Japanese systems allows for a final uv filter stage but that is replaceable too though quite expensive.

The whole amway device is just a revenue generating scheme  for them and informed buyers shun it.

 

The main cost of the Japanese filter system is the stainless steel and welded construction.

There are large plugs on the top and bottom of each filter tube to allow medium replacement which is essentially sand and charcoal.

 

If one cannot afford a quality filter it saves a lot eventually on plastic bottles disposable filters.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

The simplest solution to really clean water is the gallon jugs from 7-11....Or home delivery.....

 

I have given up on the street machines that filter water....The quality is honestly not great......

Believe the idea was to lower plastic usage.  Gallon jugs?  In Thailand?????

13 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Everything requires maintenance (including our bodies) but as said it can be done by owner and should be nothing more than annual change of filter carts (and the RO (most expensive) can probably last two years with normal home usage.  For AC very important to not only clean filters every few weeks but to have professionally cleaned every six months or so for energy efficient operation and to avoid outages (although time will vary by amount of dirt in room - teenagers seem to make a lot).  

Outages won't appear easy on an aircon, our friend just waits untill the whole thing becomes a lump of ice haha...

 

I will order a small pistol for my Karcher high pressure washer and a curtain so i can clean it myself...last saturday we had to wait 3 hours for the aircon cleaners and we had at least 10 different companies last years...they all like to let you wait many hours or don't come at all.

9 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Believe the idea was to lower plastic usage.  Gallon jugs?  In Thailand?????

Yea well if your renting a apartment short term and you want to drink clean water YOU WILL buy the gallon jugs of water,there are no other options.....

3 minutes ago, Thian said:

we had to wait 3 hours for the aircon cleaners and we had at least 10 different companies last years...they all like to let you wait many hours or don't come at all.

We have had the same person for several decades now - believe he normally serves a major store chain but always willing to earn extra - we do pay in the high range but he is always available within a few hours and does a good job.  Used to have son or hired person help but for last few years has found it easier to do himself.  

Step in the right direction. When I arrived 15 years ago, one of the first things I bought was a roll of plastic bags for my garbage. That roll is still untouched in my cabinet and hopefully from the year 2022 that Investment pays off.

The answer is out there, we just need to care and look for it and not give up.

On 11/1/2019 at 2:55 PM, Chazar said:

got them in the Uk at Mcdonalds,  if you dont get that drink down in less than 2  minutes they disintegrate......................useless

Drinks can be consumed from the cup. Straws are not necessary.

On 11/1/2019 at 5:16 PM, toast1 said:

>Looking for non plastic drinking straws for the bar in Makro the other day. After hunting for 10 minutes I asked......Answer.....No Hab.

 

Non plastic straws are bad for the environment, they use much more oil to make, are more difficult to dispose of and are an environmental threat.

Paper straws are bad for the environment.

 

Such is the trendy nonsense of much environmental mythology.

My local bar and grill uses straws made from corn starch seriously doubt anyone would use a straw (other than plastic) made from oil