Thai retailers' plastic bags ban comes into effect

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Retailers' plastic bags ban comes into effect 

 

 

Wednesday (January 1) marked the first day of the ban on plastic bags implemented by around 75 brands under the Thai Retailers Association to reduce plastic waste in the country.

 

They aim to reduce a whopping 13.5 billion plastic bags handed out to shoppers, or 30 per cent of plastic bags used in Thailand annually.

 

Under the association's campaign titled "Every Day Say No to Plastic Bags", 24,500 distribution channels of all its 75 members will stop giving plastic bags for purchases, hoping to drive the country closer to a plastic waste free society.

 

The Department of Pollution Control recently revealed that 40 per cent or 18 billion plastic bags come from the fresh market annually, while the balance 30 per cent, or 13.5 billion bags, come from local grocery stores.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380043

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-01

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[clokwise]

The 7-11 near me just tried to give me a plastic bag for my bottle of milk. They must not have gotten the message.

[fforest1]

Plastic is evil.....Throw you smart phones and computers in the trash....We need to get back to living in caves...

[smedly]

you cannot stop issuing plastic bags until there is a viable alternative 

 

I'm all for it but it will fail without solutions for the gaping whole left in the retail market

 

I already refuse a bag if possible and have been doing for months

[Nyezhov]

I bought a couple of those cute cloth bags for my pack and pocket. No big deal.

[Phuketshrew]

59 minutes ago, clokwise said:

The 7-11 near me just tried to give me a plastic bag for my bottle of milk. They must not have gotten the message.

Yep - same here about 10 minutes ago.

[Okis]

Went to lotus today and was told that they don't give out plastic bags anymore, then he reached under the counter and picked up n gave me the usual plastic bag anyways. Was kind of a weird experience. 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Okis

[ukrules]

It won't last a week.

[MyTHaiMyKe]

People not only use plastic bags for groceries, but for garbage. What are we supposed to put our garbage in when we throw it out? There will be garbage everywhere on the streets now blowing around. What about paper bags? What about plastic bottles? What about the food at stands, that is all put in bags? Another Thai brilliant idea without thinking about the consequences.

[RotBenz8888]

Madness. Next could be a styrofoam ban, causing a serious famine as they can't bring their food home. 

[MikeN]

7 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Madness. Next could be a styrofoam ban, causing a serious famine as they can't bring their food home. 

I am sure that they will find a way once they get hungry. They could always ask their mother or grandmother how they survived without styrofoam trays or plastic bags at the markets.

Edited January 1, 2020 by MikeN

[glennb6]

I drive some of the back roads on the dark side daily and it astounds me how much garbage/rubbish/trash is all over the sides of the roads. I see sign in Thai that apparently get put up in the infrequent event that a makeshift roadside trash dump is cleared, signs look like says a 2000b fine for dumping garbage. Few days later there are trash bags in same spot. It's pretty bad.

 

And a govt, stores, and apparently a cadre of greenies thinks eliminating plastic bags at retail stores is going to save the world and Thailand - All a bunch of sound-bite garbage is what it is. From a logical perspective, I'd bet that one plastic water bottle is more plastic than a dozen bags. Ban them? Address real problems? Never.

 

As far as the Thai Image goes, if I was a citizen, I would take pictures of these back roads and put them all over the net and in newspapers. Shame goes a long way.

 

 

[glennb6]

9 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

Madness. Next could be a styrofoam ban, causing a serious famine as they can't bring their food home. 

555 - put the food in small plastic bags... ????

[Don Mega]

18 minutes ago, MyTHaiMyKe said:

People not only use plastic bags for groceries, but for garbage. What are we supposed to put our garbage in when we throw it out? There will be garbage everywhere on the streets now blowing around. What about paper bags? What about plastic bottles? What about the food at stands, that is all put in bags? Another Thai brilliant idea without thinking about the consequences.

Just went to the 7/11, purchased 4 items and got 3 plastic bags and 5 straws.

 

The plastic bags and straws went into the bin, the bin that is lined with a black plastic bin bag that I purchase for the sole purpose of throwing my garbage away in.

[Shot]

My local Kamala Tesco Express hasn't had plastic bags for a few months, bring your own. My 7-11 has been asking for a few months if I want a bag. BigC Kamala was only giving out bags if you had a lot of stuff, today they informed me, "No bags today and not ever. " Like many others, I use these bags at least twice. I'm not going to buy trash bags and only use them once, so I'll be burning my rubbish in the yard or street, just like my neighbors. Happy cough, cough new year.

[webfact]

Thailand kicks off 2020 with plastic bag ban

By Prapan Chankaew

 

FILE PHOTO: Vegetables are carried in plastics bags at a market in Bangkok, Thailand June 19, 2019. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand began the year with a ban on single-use plastic bags at major stores, continuing a campaign launched by the government and retailers towards a complete ban in 2021 to reduce waste and debris in the sea.

 

Public awareness of the risk to animals and the environment from such waste was raised last year in a series of incidents where animals including a deer and a baby dugong were found dead with plastics in their digestive systems.

 

"Thailand was ranked sixth among the world's top countries that dumps waste into the sea," Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Varawut Silpa-Archa told reporters on Wednesday after handing out reusable bags to the public.

 

"During the past five months, we were down to 10th ... thanks to the cooperation of the Thai people."

 

The ministry says the country reduced the use of plastic bags by 2 billion, or about 5,765 tonnes last year, in the first phase of campaign to encourage consumers’ voluntarily refusal of plastic bags from stores.

 

"At first, I was not used to it (bringing shopping bags) because sometimes I just came bare hands and forgot about it. When I remember, I will carry it along," said one shopper, Supanee Burut-thong.

 

Varawut said the most challenging aspect would be the last 40% of plastic bag used at fresh markets and in rural areas.

 

"It's not going to be easy to change the way of thinking and behaviour of those people," he said.

 

($1 = 29.7600 baht)

 

(Writing by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Alison Williams)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-01-02

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[MaxYakov]

8 hours ago, MyTHaiMyKe said:

People not only use plastic bags for groceries, but for garbage. What are we supposed to put our garbage in when we throw it out? There will be garbage everywhere on the streets now blowing around. What about paper bags? What about plastic bottles? What about the food at stands, that is all put in bags? Another Thai brilliant idea without thinking about the consequences.

You omitted the part about the sky's falling!

[MaxYakov]

7 hours ago, Shot said:

My local Kamala Tesco Express hasn't had plastic bags for a few months, bring your own. My 7-11 has been asking for a few months if I want a bag. BigC Kamala was only giving out bags if you had a lot of stuff, today they informed me, "No bags today and not ever. " Like many others, I use these bags at least twice. I'm not going to buy trash bags and only use them once, so I'll be burning my rubbish in the yard or street, just like my neighbors. Happy cough, cough new year.

I'm sure many of us appreciate your creative flexibility on this issue (NOT). I hope you were not serious because many of us homo sapiens sapiens have to actually breathe air - something that most of the Bangkok residents seem to have forgotten or ignored. Maybe their metabolisms are actually alien and they don't really need oxygen via clean air. It wouldn't surprise me if this were the case.

 

TIP: Buy, install and use both a trash compactor and a sink disposal unit or don't they allow these in Thailand's outback?

 

 

Edited January 1, 2020 by MaxYakov

[Gecko123]

https://graphics.reuters.com/ENVIRONMENT-PLASTIC/0100B4TF2MQ/index.html

[scubascuba3]

Yesterday Tesco Lotus didn't seem to know about the "Bag for Life" they'd been advertising, i bought a couple at 5 baht, no idea if they are bags for life

[MyTHaiMyKe]

What about when you buy fruits or vegetables in bulk, it is put in plastic bags, bulk rice put in plastic bags, bulk meat it is put in plastic bags, bread and rolls again plastic bags, buy garbage bags that are plastic. I could go on and on! Are some plastic bags better than others? Only a Thai would know that grocery bags are the worst, everything else is OK!

[TEFLKrabi]

Is it possible that rather than criticising, the elite at TVF could come up with a solution? For me, a reduction is the first step. Sure, I still need large black bags for rubbish but no longer accept the bags offered at the local minimarts.

[Don Mega]

6 minutes ago, MyTHaiMyKe said:

What about when you buy fruits or vegetables in bulk, it is put in plastic bags, bulk rice put in plastic bags, bulk meat it is put in plastic bags, bread and rolls again plastic bags, buy garbage bags that are plastic. I could go on and on! Are some plastic bags better than others? Only a Thai would know that grocery bags are the worst, everything else is OK!

I refuse the bags for fruit, meat and bakery items, 

I insist they weigh and tag each item individually..... takes em for ever to do a few kg of ground beef and the stickers on my bread slices don't toast all that well.

[30la]

I'm sure it will end up like many laws / rules imposed by this government, the first noise of important people / groups will be withdrawn or suspended!

[mickey rat]

13 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

I bought a couple of those cute cloth bags for my pack and pocket. No big deal.

Me too I also use them to put the plastic garbage when I'm done eating from it. Works great. Then I repeat the process forever. It's all so cute. ????

Edited January 2, 2020 by mickey rat

[jacko45k]

14 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Plastic is evil.....Throw you smart phones and computers in the trash....We need to get back to living in caves...

What am I supposed to put my trash in to chuck it out? 

[beavenlen]

our local mom+pop shop has given customers a large shoulder bag for new year ,we have refused bags now for 4 months , as for foam my wife has a food outlet and in partnership with local authority has stop using foam also instead uses green alternative, why worry about bags,whats wrong with all those cardboard boxes the plastic arrives in,use them like we did in the past.

[linno2]

In Fiji they are about to ban single use plastic bags.  At the vege section of the supermarket they have single use plastic, at the pharmacy, the choc top ice-creams at the cinema etc.  I must admit that I have not sorted what to do with the kitchen garbage in terms of loading into the larger bin that is collected - I still have some black bin liners and a stash of supermarket bags in the meanwhile. What do other folks do?

[heybuz]

11 hours ago, MikeN said:

I am sure that they will find a way once they get hungry. They could always ask their mother or grandmother how they survived without styrofoam trays or plastic bags at the markets.

When I was younger my father was partial to Chinese food ,now we didn't have Chinese restaurants at that time but the local Chinese market gardener had a thriving business selling food, the old man would take a billy can or a metal tin with lid and that would suffice. I see in Thailand you can buy similar with multiple cans clicked together,this could be the answer.

[Don Mega]

35 minutes ago, jacko45k said:

What am I supposed to put my trash in to chuck it out? 

I just throw mine over the front gate into the mooban soi and someone comes round every morning and sweeps it up.