World Bank said Thailand is in a significant plastic waste crisis

[Bim Smith]

What has the World Bank got to do with a countries plastic problem?

[wombat]

[Tropposurfer]

Yep the waste management and awareness and social change around plastics here is woeful indeed. Its bad worldwide and we need to stop talking BS about it and make the industries that refuse to change to change.

 

During Covid (before and after the beach access bans) we collected 20 ute loads of rubbish from Surin and Naithon beach areas!! I sh.t you not!!!

 

I firmly believe its not just governments who need to lead, we need to make noise and show our want for change by our actions.

We try to dovetail using our cars with a few chores and pleasure outings so as to maximise our fuel efficiency. Have one hybrid, one super lean diesel, and I plan to invest in a hybrid for our SUV, and electric model as they get better. 

 

As a surfer it breaks my heart to be sitting in the water in the Maldives or remote Sumatran islands and see plastic bags in the water that have floated there from long away and long ago!

 

I/we use our reusable coffee and cold drink cups - no single use cups of any kind for the last 5 years., we never accept plastic bags in shops - always have our shopping bags in the car and mini rolled-up ones in our shoulder bags for those un-programmed buys. When we go for takeout we take our own containers to fill, wash and reuse and always say with a warm smile 'plastic mai dee Thailand, love and take care Thailand' to the vendors and restauranteurs.

We buy reusable drink cups containers for our friends for birthdays etc.

 

I cut about 40 tonnes of timber flotsam up at Surin and Naithon and Naithon noi with my chainsaw and axe, and delivered truck loads to the nurseries all over the west coast for their pots and orchid products ... great exercise and lots of locals came to help the few morning we went down to help the beach which was great fun. The nurserymen loved the tortured branches and stuff, and our architect developer loved the large logs we bought him. 

Sad fact is once we put our bins out (separated rubbish or no) and they are taken the waste is NOT recycled a lot of the time and goes to landfill.

I never accept packaging when buying anything, just the product.

We don't buy cheap 'throw-away' clothes so we don't add to the mega-tonnes of clothing thats adding to the problem. If you think of it buying 3 t shorts a year because they last 5 years is cheaper and way cooler than buying 10 every year of <deleted> stuff.

 

We have compost bins and all our garden and vegetable food waste goes into this or the worm farm.

 

None of this is hard or bothering, in fact it's easy AND makes us and others feel really good about the small mindfulness and efforts we put in. Our neighbours give us their food scraps and the worms are very grateful.

I've helped the estate we live on create compost bays and mulching of all waste form the gardens and established worm farms for other owners too.

 

There are lots of recycling initiatives worldwide and lots or R&D stuff to invest in if readers are curious.

 

The fact is we now live in a world that pollutes out of synch with Natures cycles. We can change this in huge ways and must for future generations not shy away from the challenges this stark reality presents to us.

 

We could be total pollution-Nazi's ... never fly, not own cars, wear clothes only locally made of organic only stuff (which I do, 'she who must be obeyed' still has a need for some synthetic stuff )until they fall apart before buying any more etc but life is a matter of working in each moment, each day to find balance not obsession (or so I believe) ????????????????

Edited June 10, 2022 by Tropposurfer

[Peterphuket]

1 hour ago, SymS said:

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.

We talk about Thai, not Japanese people.

[Fab5BKK]

This is the original & official link:

World Bank: Plastic Waste Material Flow Analysis for Thailand

[George Aylesham]

5 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 ! 

The moment the terrorism issue arose the French replaced their waste bins with transparent plastic(!) ones.

[johnnybangkok]

5 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 ! 

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Street bins were removed in London in the 80's due to the IRA (is this the 'religion of peace terrorism' you are referring to? Yeah, didn't think so) but re-instated around 2008 with new, bomb proof bins were introduced. These were then further updated for the Olympics.

If you are going to get your thinly veiled Islamophobia out for everyone to see, at least get your facts straight.  

 

 

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

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.’ 

Thailands focus is on Indian arrivals at the moment.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

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.

Thailands management on waste disposal or recycling needs drastic upgrading.

In my Moo ban there are about 20 large plastic wheelie bins that get filled with everything imaginable.

Along comes one truck and everything is tipped in the back of it and off to a landfill somewhere.

 

[shackleton]

If people on here are  that concerned about plastic waste ect 

Why don't they help clean it up 

Don't read to many stories of expats tourist ect cleaning up the beaches 

As before in Pattaya Phuket to name a few 

[connda]

6 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

alk 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.

Citizens try to do the right thing but are not given the infrastructure to properly throw away waste.

That problem sit squarely on the government.
Supply the facilities.
Create laws outlawing single-use plastic.

[DUNROAMIN]

Thailand quiet, gee, I wonder why!!

[KhunLA]

6 hours ago, Gsxrnz said:

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.  

How about a "World ... stop exporting your trash to Asia .... Day"

or year would be better.  As if half of it ever makes it here.

 

Ban plastic = sell what we used to give away (ex: 7-11 bags)

Profits up again.

Edited June 10, 2022 by KhunLA

[Toby1947]

It’s a sh*t hole. 

[mehrdad]

I find a rat in central plaza food court 

[PETERTHEEATER]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

t seems hard to find any meaningful news as to what Thailand is doing to stem this growing issue.

Consider collecting the plastic waste and scattering it on sugar cane and rice stubble ready for farmers to burn.........????

[sambum]

7 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

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

Re waste bins, I have posted this before,but it is relevant to this post. Where I live, the Council used to supply and empty the bins on a regular basis, and charged a very small fee for doing so. Because some business owners stopped paying for this service, The Council's answer was to take away the bins! The result of this is piles of plastic bags full of waste along the side of the road, or on the  side roads which obviously get scavenged and ripped open by soi dogs resulting in an unsightly, unhealthy mess. Why don't they add the cost of the garbage collection to people's electricity bills, and then they would have to pay  - or have their electricity disconnected?

 

On a slightly different note, on the small complex where I used to live we all bought our own garbage disposal bins, and the cost of the garbage collection was included in the rent. In the space of a few weeks, the lids disappeared, and then the bins themselves. Needless to say, the landlord wouldn't replace them, and the police didn't put it on their list of priorities - in fact I don't think they even made out a report. I think (from what I was told as I don't speak Thai) they said (with grins on their faces) that they would let us know if they were handed in!

 

So once again, more piles of stinking garbage in plastic bags!   

[PETERTHEEATER]

1 hour ago, Bim Smith said:

What has the World Bank got to do with a countries plastic problem?

Where there's  muck there's  brass.......

[lahgon29]

2 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

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

Now if they could change the taste to something like ber Lao, I'd give them more kudos????????

[terryofcrete]

You have to be very quick to stop the 7Elevens adding plastic spoons or knives and forks and straws to your purchases . Free plastic bags are back too... remember how strict they were when the ban was first introduced ... 
the rats outside the 7/11 opposite my hotel are busy at night carrying loot from the trash bags,  left outside by the staff , to their nests down the drains . 5 huge barrels of mixed waste are collected during the night from outside the hotel ... someone said the bin men sort through them and separate the recycle waste... they do not ... I happened to look out my balcony as they were collecting one night. 
There's no real interest in addressing the problem ... same with the cracked and dangerous footpaths ...if there is a footpath ....I saw a blind man trying to negotiate Soi Bukahao in Pattaya ...it was agonising to watch for me , never mind the difficulty for the unsighted man .

 

[mahtin]

1 hour ago, johnnybangkok said:

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Street bins were removed in London in the 80's due to the IRA (is this the 'religion of peace terrorism' you are referring to? Yeah, didn't think so) but re-instated around 2008 with new, bomb proof bins were introduced. These were then further updated for the Olympics.

If you are going to get your thinly veiled Islamophobia out for everyone to see, at least get your facts straight.  

 

 

 

In 1973 the Provisional IRA sent 11 agents to detonate several car bombs in London. They were later captured. Their attacks escalated with several pub bombings in 1974.

(https://alphahistory.com/northernireland/ira-mainland-campaign/)

 

Speaking of the IRA, remember in 1974 sitting alone in a pub in Wardour St. chatting with the barmaid who was moonlighting after her day job in a language school. Our conversation was punctuated by the sound of distant explosions.  (She became my first Thai GF.)

Edited June 10, 2022 by mahtin
source quote

[BadSpottedDog]

Aside from recycling programs and separate bins for plastic, education and enforcement of policy is key. I know everyone witnesses people just tossing their waste wherever they're standing, or leave all their trash on the beaches. Happens all the time. Remember the huge push with "Give a hoot. Don't pollute" in The US? 
It's one of the main things I don't like about living in Thailand. Drives me crazy.

Edited June 10, 2022 by BadSpottedDog

[oslooskar]

3 hours ago, SymS said:

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.

Most of the trash on the beaches here in Rayong comes in with the tide and originated elsewhere. In fact, some of the plastic containers that are washed up on the beach here are covered with barnacles. So, they have been at sea for quite sometime. However, that having been said, if they left some of those large blue plastic trash cans on the beach it would be helpful. In fact, I would personally be willing to help keep a certain section of beach trash-free by volunteering some time each day to picking up trash. 

[thailand49]

Billions and trillions spent on shining up places for short term tourist shuttle them around make sure they don't see the garbage.  Nothing spent on infracture garbage bins is people empty lots here in Pattaya Darkside you can go KM and not see a garbage bin go the any beach here it is the same. Before Bang Sean open I notice more new bins than population but no one seems to be picking up. 

One or two trucks when all said and done I don't see where the trucks dump it? 

Thailand want only to be part of the world so they can receive funding in this case World Bank,  just like World Health provides millions each year to help fix the accident rate we all know how that is working! 

Stop the charity until they show progress on their own. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by thailand49

[arithai12]

I realize this is mainly a Thai-bashing forum, and if you want to be liked you should write posts with TIT and Hub and so on.  But I don't need to be liked so let me offer a positive note.

 

I see an increasingly number of shops in Chiang Mai that ask you whether you want a plastic bag or not, and seem glad when I produce my own fabric shopping bag. I always have one or two in my backpack. And I see both Thai and Farang do the same. I also see several restaurants that package their take-aways in cardboard containers rather than styrofoam. Ditto, paper straws instead of plastic. My condo does garbage separation.

 

I know it is a small thing compared to all the plastic, but it's a good sign and with our support it may grow bigger.

[Jen65]

Just do a morning run (or walk) along Jomtien Beach promenade early morning and you will see the problem!!  Polystyrene food containers and plastics everywhere !!

The are no waste bins at or near the beach walkway - only some on the road above.    Unless Thailand adopts a litter fine for dropping/not disposing of litter properly - nothing will change .  It will only change when it hurts the pocket !!

Not just the beach - check out soi 6 ( the Na Jomtien Police Station soi )   and there you will see the worst of fly tipping , old toilets , sofas and plastics !!   No fines, no cameras , nobody doing anything to stop it and yet the Police drive by all the time !!!  

[Spock]

4 hours ago, SymS said:

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.

Japanese have a very different mindset to the Thais when it comes to their environment. They care.

[ThailandRyan]

57 minutes ago, arithai12 said:

I realize this is mainly a Thai-bashing forum, and if you want to be liked you should write posts with TIT and Hub and so on.  But I don't need to be liked so let me offer a positive note.

 

I see an increasingly number of shops in Chiang Mai that ask you whether you want a plastic bag or not, and seem glad when I produce my own fabric shopping bag. I always have one or two in my backpack. And I see both Thai and Farang do the same. I also see several restaurants that package their take-aways in cardboard containers rather than styrofoam. Ditto, paper straws instead of plastic. My condo does garbage separation.

 

I know it is a small thing compared to all the plastic, but it's a good sign and with our support it may grow bigger.

It is a learned behavior for many.  Just take a trip out to the countryside and look around the houses, the yards are full of trash and the kids just toss the plastic wrapper or carton they were drinking juice or milk from on the ground, you can even see it down some of the small Soi's here in Bangkok.

Edited June 10, 2022 by ThailandRyan

[Spock]

1 hour ago, oslooskar said:

Most of the trash on the beaches here in Rayong comes in with the tide and originated elsewhere. In fact, some of the plastic containers that are washed up on the beach here are covered with barnacles. So, they have been at sea for quite sometime. However, that having been said, if they left some of those large blue plastic trash cans on the beach it would be helpful. In fact, I would personally be willing to help keep a certain section of beach trash-free by volunteering some time each day to picking up trash. 

Right, so the trash is not coming from Thailand at all! Gottya. Probably come all the way from Australia, Singapore or Europe. 

[ThailandRyan]

11 minutes ago, Spock said:

Right, so the trash is not coming from Thailand at all! Gottya. Probably come all the way from Australia, Singapore or Europe. 

Much of it comes from being dumped in the waters off of the coastlines by the haulers that are supposed to dispose of it.  I actually saw a new dump site being filled up with trash not to far from the Big C in Bang Phli the last few weeks.  It had been an empty lot, but now has mountains of trash stacked on it while they are digging large holes to bury it in.  On another note, 2 years ago I watched them tear down a factory and warehouses near my condo, watched from up high.  They recycled much of the wood and metal, but when it came to the rest, there had been a large pond on one side which they drained, they buried all of the trash in the large pond and then pushed dirt across the top as they evened out the property.  Now a new hotel is being built, and when they started to excavate that section where the pond had been so they could start building pilons, the workers had to stop.  The next thing I saw for the next few days were dump trucks arriving and hauling away that debris.  Could not have made the new project builders and owners happy.  One has to wonder about the land where housing tracks or moo bans are now built, how many of them are built upon buried trash.

Edited June 10, 2022 by ThailandRyan