Phuket food-delivery boom raises concerns of disposable waste explosion

By The Phuket News

 

Assoc Prof Pun Thongchumnum PhD, Vice President of the Prince of Songkla University Phuket Campus, called for an immediate policy shift to curtail the use of non-environmentally friendly food packaging used by food-delivery companies in Phuket. Photo: PSU Phuket Campus

 

PHUKET: The fast-rising popularity of food-delivery services in Phuket has raised serious concerns over the volume of plastics and other non-environmentally friendly packaging used by the companies delivering food across the island by motorbike.

 

A survey by the Prince of Songkla University Phuket Campus found that there are currently three food-delivery service providers in Phuket, employing more than 2,850 drivers with over 1,000 participating restaurants using the platforms.

 

According to the survey, conducted on Oct 19-22, 48.15% of the food-packaging boxes used by food delivery services in Phuket were foam, 25.68% were plastic and only 26.17% were paper.

Read more at https://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-food-delivery-boom-raises-concerns-of-disposable-waste-explosion-73569.php#hcVfpGClhQ2Uf7vB.99 

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2019-11-08

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Finally ...someone has recognized the real plastics problem....street vendor and restaurant 'take away food',  now the hard part ,changing a Nations habits...

Not sure you can blame food delivery services.  As mentioned above, blame the society of toss it in the bushes( gutter, road, beach, river etc.) and it goes away mentality.

IF this is the only ploplem Phuket has...

Just TAX the containers, Problem solved

8 minutes ago, Netease said:

Just TAX the containers, Problem solved

How on earth is this going to solve the problem ?

All it would do is put the price up.

A total ban on polystyrenes would be a good starting place including packing in electrical goods. 

Thais are always moaning about the high price of food but they pay for expensive take aways and delivered food

18 minutes ago, jaiyen said:

Thais are always moaning about the high price of food but they pay for expensive take aways and delivered food

and then only eat 50 percent to save face.

47 minutes ago, pjuk said:

How on earth is this going to solve the problem ?

All it would do is put the price up.

A total ban on polystyrenes would be a good starting place including packing in electrical goods. 

Because if environmentally friendly packaging is the cheapest because of taxes, environmentally friendly packaging will be used. 

A post using profane language in ALL CAPS has been removed. 

2 hours ago, mok199 said:

Finally ...someone has recognized the real plastics problem....street vendor and restaurant 'take away food',  now the hard part ,changing a Nations habits...

Changing this Nations habits can be done.

Televising educational info about how bad it looks to leave their garbage at just almost any place that's convenient for them.

Enforced littering laws with fines that make sense.

Place garbage bins where needed. 

Collect and recycle/incinerate the garbage efficiently and there are likely some other good ideas. 

28 minutes ago, Rimbuman said:

Changing this Nations habits can be done.

Televising educational info about how bad it looks to leave their garbage at just almost any place that's convenient for them.

Enforced littering laws with fines that make sense.

Place garbage bins where needed. 

Collect and recycle/incinerate the garbage efficiently and there are likely some other good ideas. 

No country should buy new high speed trains and submarines, before they have a proper recycling/incineration system in place!  Even solving environment issues can generate huge kick backs.

Should start with street food takeaways.

But that will never happen.

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

According to the survey, conducted on Oct 19-22, 48.15% of the food-packaging boxes used by food delivery services in Phuket were foam, 25.68% were plastic and only 26.17% were paper.

 

Maybe the food delivery providers should stipulate that to sign-up to the service food establishments must use 100% bio-degradable packaging, and use that as a marketing strategy.

But then we all know it's nigh on impossible to get the mind-sets to change.

Some troll posts and the subsequent replies have been removed. 

2 hours ago, jaiyen said:

Thais are always moaning about the high price of food but they pay for expensive take aways and delivered food

How do you know it is the Thais doing all the ordering and not the farangs? Delivered food is the same price as in the restaurant and the delivery is free or minimal. This is not the West where delivery services charges crazy delivery fees.

3 minutes ago, hioctane said:

How do you know it is the Thais doing all the ordering and not the farangs? Delivered food is the same price as in the restaurant and the delivery is free or minimal. This is not the West where delivery services charges crazy delivery fees.

I would say that the greater percentage of the food deliveries are ordered by Thais, and indeed I have seen this on more occasions than I can care to count – – – streams of Panda delivery folk heading out of Jungceylon with plastic bags of iced drinks of one description or another, and even a few arriving there with the delivery for a Thai worker in the place (which I find amazing......perhaps Jungceylon food is too expensive for the average Thai?).

 

My Thai daughter who lives in Phuket town, occasionally uses Panda to get an evening meal delivered and when I have asked as to the type of food she is ordering and the cost, it would probably surprise most people to know that she orders between 50 and 80 baht of food (some sort of rice or noodle dish) at a time, and when you consider that Panda take up to 20% of the cost of the food as a delivery charge, then there is not a lot left for the establishment by way of profit!
 

I had take away ribs from one of the large pizza companies. It was in what looked like plastic. Looked on the back biodegradable.... Good on them...

So I have read 2 pages of folks complaining about the Thais using plastic and foam but yet I have not read one solution to the problem....anyone have a solution?  I read bio-degradable packaging but what is that?  where is it?  is it available in Thailand?  so if there is no solution for the thai besides a hard container, what are they to do??  you can't use paper for liquid so what is the solution....it's pointless to ridicule the thais...how about coming up with viable solutions....if bio degradable bags were a solution, then wouldn't that be everywhere in the world by now...?  Many of the states in the US just eliminated plastic bags altogether....but that was a viable solution there...I don't think you can do that here for street vendors...
Wouldn't it make more sense to educate the thais on where to throw their plastic?  Anyone ever live in Japan?  if you have you would know how strict Japan is for recycling and discarding plastic....they learn this while growing up from parents and school.  Plastic is not the problem...people are.

2 hours ago, Rimbuman said:

Changing this Nations habits can be done.

Take some time and go to any school ( with the students who are supposed to be educated in this enviormental crusade) and watch in disgust as all the students who claim they care are some of the worst.....Thailand sadly will never change ...road carnage ,dirty air and plastics are its future...

I have been using Grab and Food Panda these past couple of weeks, here in Phuket. I have been very impressed as almost all my food has come in cardboard containers. Only one came in plastic. I very much doubt this would have been the case even a few months ago, so I think habits are changing.  

I am not very concerned about the use of plastics, but I am concerned that 

we are a nation that does not & will not take a little time to dispose of it properly nor

will the authorities provide proper vehicles for same

My particular favourite is receiving plastic cutlery for 6 when ordering to a  residential address despite putting no plastic forks spoons in notes. 

 

Both here and in philipines I stopped ordering delivery because it was such an environmental disaster, and food served in sealed plastic containers usually goes limp and soggy and tastes like <deleted>. Few foods actually travel well. 

 

It is so much more satisfying to cook and actually have a clue what you are eating 

1 hour ago, hioctane said:

How do you know it is the Thais doing all the ordering and not the farangs? Delivered food is the same price as in the restaurant and the delivery is free or minimal. This is not the West where delivery services charges crazy delivery fees.

So you call free delivery crazy? I can have a pizza delivered from domino's and pay nothing

for delivery

im about to get a bag of coke!????????

 

90% of thais buy all there food as takeout from markets and resterants... with a lack of tourism i dont see any reason for any concern..

......and they never learn! This is a well known problem and theres no requirements for this food deliverers to use environmentally friendly packaging!

Motorcycle taxis will be double happy. 

They get taxi revenue and free food too. 

(I read recently that it is very common for delivery people to help themselves to some of customer’s food along the way). 

they could export all of the waste to Samui - i heard they have a very efficient incinerator there

3 hours ago, hioctane said:

How do you know it is the Thais doing all the ordering and not the farangs? Delivered food is the same price as in the restaurant and the delivery is free or minimal. This is not the West where delivery services charges crazy delivery fees.

The street vendors in northern Phuket rake in about 1 million baht / month in profit. 99.9% of their customers are farangs that have realized that vendor food is far cheaper and higher quality than the adjacent restaurants serving left over slop that the street vendors can't sell. At the local street vendor across the street from me, you'll see farangs lining up to get fresh shrimp fried rice for 50-70 baht ( 10 - 12 giant shrimp, all fresh and bbq right there in front of you ) and carrying 10-20 giant styrofoam boxes back to their hotels. I kid you not, it's almost comical how much product the farangs load up on ( especially the Russians and Americans ). This goes on year round. I always hear about this tourist shortage but we definitely have not experienced that in Northern Phuket. Right now, on a Monday, there is a 30 minute line / wait out by the beach, all farangs piling up to buy fresh street food. This particular street vendor is fantastic, fresh ocean catch, frankly it's the most delicious food in Phuket and only 50-70 baht / dish. Vs you go across the street to where the restaurants are and it's 250 baht for the exact same thing that is old and loaded with oil/grease to cover up the fact that the food is old, bordering on rancid. No clue how these street vendors are allowed to operate right in front of the restaurants and completely wipe out their competition but they are. Mostly likely, they have mafia connects. Regardless..boy oh boy is the food tasty and fresh!!! 

Umm have never heard of Bamboo???

Food containers are already manufactured from Bamboo along with cutlery drink straws, carry bags, someone should introduce them to the wonderful, renewable biodegradable resource, they could even use it in buildings and floor coverings.