by Michel Bridge

On a day when many countries were debating and celebrating World Ocean Day 2022, Thailand was almost silent on the issue.

The IAEA celebrated the United Nations World Oceans Day this week on the 8th of June, to raise awareness of the benefits derived from the ocean.

 

The theme for this years World Ocean Day is “From rising pollution, acidification of ocean water, rising average temperatures, to a reduction in ocean biodiversity. Through spreading awareness, World Ocean Day hopes to protect the Earth's major water bodies.’ 

 

“Revitalisation: Collective Action for the Ocean”

 

World Ocean Day - Uniting Ocean Action Worldwide is held on 8 June Every Year.

 

The Seven Seas include the Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, and Southern oceans.

 

So only the Vice Governor of Phuket was seen to celebrate World Ocean Day by releasing thirty small turtles into the Andaman Sea. 

 

But is that the right message when Thailand’s record of Marine debris is appalling?

Although the island of Phuket celebrated World Ocean Day, it seems hard to find any meaningful news as to what Thailand is doing to stem this growing issue.

In 2019, the Government of Thailand released the Roadmap for Plastic Waste Management 2018-2030 and is developing the National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris to alleviate the current impacts and avert future damage caused by marine plastic debris.

According to the World Bank they said on their website that Thailand like many countries around the world is in the midst of a significant plastic waste crisis.

The World’s Bank report entitled Plastic Waste Material Flow Analysis for Thailand was published in March 2022.

KEY FINDINGS: HIGH-PRIORITY CATCHMENTS

•    Despite a high municipal solid waste collection and recycling rate of 88.8% in Thailand, remaining uncollected plastic waste and many unsanitary disposal facilities result in an estimated 428 kton/year of mismanaged plastic waste.

•    Most mismanaged plastic waste that is available for wash-off to rivers and the marine environment (defined as ‘exposed mismanaged plastic waste’) is generated in rural areas (70.1%) which have lower collection rates and contain the most disposal facilities,  Bangkok contributes 18.4% of exposed mismanaged plastic waste due to the large overall volumes of waste generated and uncollected A large amount of uncollected waste in the Chao Phraya catchment is disposed directly into waterways.

•    Ten districts (of 247 in total) account for 51.7% of the total exposed mismanaged plastic waste in the high-priority catchments. These are all situated in or near Bangkok and are relatively close to the marine environment.

On a personal level many shops that originally stopped handing out plastic backs are now relaxing this rule.
Plastic re cycled can be used in many other products and even as an alternative fuel source.
Maybe if re cycling can be subsidised by the Thai government then for a start some of Bangkok’s dirty canals can be cleaned.

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2022-06-10

 

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Walk on the beach and try to find wastebins on many beaches in Thailand, there are non or very few and overloaded as they are maybe emptied once a day. Than still Thailand is using too much plastic. Everything must be in a plastic bag if you bought something, even for 1 item they want to give a bag. How often don't you see soft drinks with ice in plastic bags or iced coffee and tea  and nowhere waste bins.. We walked around in Big C, Lotus, Robinson Mega Bangna and many other places and almost no waste bins to find. There is a lot of work to do, but as usual the Government haven't done nothing in the past years except trying to ban plastic bags( now available again for a few baht) in the superstores....Surely they silence now

Thailand-The hub of plastic waste and lack of trash bins.

So.....the World Bank to the rescue?

 

Too many World (insert your virtue signaling fetish here) Days.

 

June 4th was officially Hug a Cat Day.  Couldn't catch the stray moggy that hangs around the condo carpark.  Sought out some pussy instead.  

 

I'm a civic minded person.  

34 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Thailand-The hub of plastic waste and lack of trash bins.

Don't know about Thailand, but in the UK many trash bins were removed due to religion of peace terrorism issues ! 

Thailand should be ashamed of itself. 

 

It really is a filthy country if you look under the surface. 

 

Still rooted firmly in the third world because of poor education and mentality. 

34 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Don't know about Thailand, but in the UK many trash bins were removed due to religion of peace terrorism issues ! 

Last night on our walk here in BKK, we walked by piles and piles of trash and trash bags stacked on corners.  The Soi dogs were ripping g the bags open and the cat sized rats were enjoying a meal as well.  This morning the street behind my condo was covered in Trash that had been blown about.....watched as plastic  bags floated up in the breeze like fricking balloons.....just lovre trash pick up day and no cans...

4 hours ago, webfact said:

what Thailand is doing to stem this growing issue.

It is employing packs of wild dogs to strew the plastic over a wider area.

2 minutes ago, mikebell said:

It is employing packs of wild dogs to strew the plastic over a wider area.

Yup, what he said, see my post above....

The reduction of plastic waste by banning plastic bags [in big stores only] has been blown out of the water [pun intended] by the 'new normal' of home deliveries: Like many others we get most of our shopping delivered, and the amount of packaging is sometimes off the scale.  The big stores are little different as they usually arrive just as you would buy in the store but Lazada and Shopee [for example] generate masses of cardboard and plastic. The pic is a small example when food items are delivered, this was for cans of tomatoes, if products are in glass jars even moreso.

 

 

2 minutes ago, ThailandRyan said:

Yup, what he said, see my post above....

I thought I was the anti-dog commentator on here.  I was supporting your post but in a pithier way.

why would a world bank care about how much plastic trash there is in Thailand, their purpose is to rob countries not cleaning trash

30 minutes ago, vinci said:

why would a world bank care about how much plastic trash there is in Thailand, their purpose is to rob countries not cleaning trash

Trash heaps and trash filled streets and beaches keep tourists away as well as domestic tourism, well many at least, and so the WB would downgrade the view on growth in a monetary way based upon certain conditions.

Plastic polluting and mass burning are two of the black eyes of Asians

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Thailand-The hub of plastic waste and lack of trash bins.

The lack of trash bins may be a problem. An alternative is to do what Japan does. They have very few trash bins, but the place is usually very clean, because they bring back their trash at home.

The problem is that the most locals don't seem to be bothered by the garbage, they don't view discarded packages and plastic bags as dirty.

In some case, even close to government areas (e.g. amphur) the place is not cleaned up. The cleanest places are usually locations like beaches and parks managed by the military.

As Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”

I've asked a few people I watched dropping the packaging they'd used; a bag of ice from 7/11, a cup and plastic holder from Amazon. When I asked why they don't put it in a bin they said it was not their job to clear up trash. So I told them it was not trash - it was theirs since they bought it minutes prior. The response was "I bought the contents, not the packaging. It's not my job to clean it up."

TAT will publish tomorrow the brilliant news.

Thailand Nr 1 and world leader in plastic.

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

Thailand-The hub of plastic waste and lack of trash bins.

I think that Vietnam already has that title.

There was a recent article in Asean Now on the problem. (30th May)

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Don't know about Thailand, but in the UK many trash bins were removed due to religion of peace terrorism issues ! 

That's ok because now you can insert the waste into the slot on the black mailboxes.

 

 

I was chatting to the mayor of the Mae Ram Pheung Beach area several years ago during a corporate beach cleaning effort. I asked why there were bins placed regularly along the road but none on the beach, where the rubbish was dropped. 

He told me the beaches are controlled by the Natural Resources Ministry not his district and they did not want bins on the beach. Why? They would make the beach look dirty as Thais fill bins with rubbish that overflows. Why not collect more frequently? No budget.

My company once offered one district office free bins for a few kilometres of Sukhumvit road. They declined, again saying Thais would throw rubbish "at the bin" not in the bin and it would make more of a mess. Why not collect more frequently? It would cause traffic jams and people would complain. They only collected at night.

it isn't just about the waste, plastic or otherwise, it is about the government not wanting to be part of the solution. 

it is also about the carelessness of people. See a bin for plastics? Put the remnants of your hamburger in it. 

Placing trash bags and bins around whatever area means that said trash has to be collected and deposed of. This costs money which means someone who has their hand in the till doesn't get so much. Its the same with household trash clearing, every one should pay but there are those who wont and dump their trash in other peoples bins. Having paid for the bins to be emptied, you are lucky to get them emptied once every two weeks. Why, because it cost money and the same person with their fingers in the till lose out.

3 hours ago, Caspersfriend said:

The reduction of plastic waste by banning plastic bags [in big stores only] has been blown out of the water [pun intended] by the 'new normal' of home deliveries: Like many others we get most of our shopping delivered, and the amount of packaging is sometimes off the scale.  The big stores are little different as they usually arrive just as you would buy in the store but Lazada and Shopee [for example] generate masses of cardboard and plastic. The pic is a small example when food items are delivered, this was for cans of tomatoes, if products are in glass jars even moreso.

 

 

This is mostly due to the people here, 1. not educated, 2. don't care and 3. have no common sense. Please protect those cans and use an oversized box. If they would think first, they could see that there could be at least 2 orders packaged with all the material you see here, but that would require people to think. 5555

5 minutes ago, Purdey said:

I was chatting to the mayor of the Mae Ram Pheung Beach area several years ago during a corporate beach cleaning effort. I asked why there were bins placed regularly along the road but none on the beach, where the rubbish was dropped. 

He told me the beaches are controlled by the Natural Resources Ministry not his district and they did not want bins on the beach. Why? They would make the beach look dirty as Thais fill bins with rubbish that overflows. Why not collect more frequently? No budget.

My company once offered one district office free bins for a few kilometres of Sukhumvit road. They declined, again saying Thais would throw rubbish "at the bin" not in the bin and it would make more of a mess. Why not collect more frequently? It would cause traffic jams and people would complain. They only collected at night.

it isn't just about the waste, plastic or otherwise, it is about the government not wanting to be part of the solution. 

it is also about the carelessness of people. See a bin for plastics? Put the remnants of your hamburger in it. 

Just like my Thai wife, she always has an excuse as why she can't do something. Never the positive, only the negative, or too many just plain lazy. The government should use some of the corruption money to increase the number of collections of rubbish. It will never happen here in Thailand, too many don't care and have learned to live with it.

1 hour ago, Taco said:

Plastic polluting and mass burning are two of the black eyes of Asians

Not all Asians: none of that in eg Singapore, where you risk a very hefty fine for anything thrown into the street

Kudos to Singha Beer in small aluminum cans.  The six pack uses a reinforced cardboard—to replace those plastic rings.

They simply don't care. Why would they? Those who should be leading them don't even live in the country, so obviously those people don't care what happens here in the Land Of Filth and Rubbish. 

They simply don't care...  

Was the female teacher who leave her room last day, moved to this beach ? ????