Thailand Cutting Back On Plastic Bags

[Capealava]

Start charging for plastic bags. Problem solved.

I agree with that. I often buy one or two small items in 7/11 or local minimart. They rush to plastic bag it, and I always say (in my broken Thai) mee plastic paw uban, krap. Don't know if my bad Thai, but they look at me as if I'm mad to not accept a plastic bag .... sigh sigh ...

It is "Pom mai aow tung" -----I do not want plastic bag=======

[grtaylor]

..., and I always say (in my broken Thai) mee plastic paw uban, krap.

My 'mai au tung' (German transscription) is usually quite successful

"mai sai tung" or "mai au plastic" works also

Ah, other posters just beat me to the punch. Yes, LivinginKata, your Thai is too complicated there (actually, I don't know what "paw uban" means).

What the others wrote works everytime: "Mai ow toong" ("no want bag") or "Mai sai toong" or "Mai ow plaa-tic" (they don't actually say the "s" in plastic).

If you do get a funny look, you can follow-up with "Loohk lawn," which translates to "hot Earth" or "global warming." They get it then.

All the 7-Eleven girls make fun of me EVERYtime I buy something, usually everyday, about not wanting a bag before I can even say it. I have to interrupt the robotic-like reflex of new cashiers until they get to know me.

I think he means "mee plastic por yoo bahn, krap", loose translation - I have enough plastic at home, thank you!

[MyFriend You]

Thailand without plastic bags?

Funny... almost every 2 or 3 years the same old story. To get rid-off plastic bags out of the "Thai way of live" will need more efforts than a statement from a Ministry. At least a 1y year educational press/tv/radio/ad campaign.

The plastic bag is a part of Thai "culture" - sad but true!

Aaaahhhhh.....but I remember my 'Cha Dum Yen for 1 baht, and 'Pepsi dee bahn' for 2 baht, and every kind of Thai food you could think of in 'plactic bags' to go - we could eat healthy for 10-15 baht a day, and they would always wash the 'plactic bags' and use them again - hey to hel_l with the parasites, they were just friendly fauna for our guts, 'make room for Singha' never gained a kilo in 4 years living in Thailand in the 70's/80's...............food, water, everything was clean then, now we are Modern, Prosperous, Western - everyone is sick, mean, angry, and don't give a rat's @ss for anyone, don't even know your neighbor, hel_l,, I knew my entire village in 79 by name, and most of their kids...............Glad I'm old and I can remember the real Thai - not this 'New MUANG THAI'................but I now live here because I am a 'Falang Thai, Kow sip Kow per cent'........ Tee-ny percent dayo binai?? Bi Teeo Ching Ching sa duay............enjoy what we have left, the mighty Euro is taking over.........soon we will have prices in Euro & Baht.

[Johnxxx]

I am happy that you get bags in Thailand. A nightmare in Europe if you want to buy more than planned and do not have a bag for it. In addition to this I need them for my garbage and other things.

Most of them get dissolved very quickly. I think taking a bike or public transport for shopping would save MUCH more pollution than going there by car and reusable bag.

So better to get rid of the cars. THEY are a nightmare here in Pattaya - not the plastic bags...

[YORKSHIREPUD]

JUST A BIT OF USLESS INFORMATION.

Don't know if this has been noted/posted yet but MAKRO here in Phuket have had right from the word GO! They don't put anything in bags at all but they do sell LARGE reusable bags for about 11 Baht, the downside to this is, you end up with one very large bag instead of 5 small ones AND 5 times heavier, this is a problem for some people with health problems.

[Bearhawk07]

I bought a cloth bag with my small amount of groceries here at Big C.... they put it in a plastic bag!!!!! So much for the Save the Earth slogan on the bag!!!!!!!!!! A Thai friend told me that it is very bad mannered to send someone off with things NOT in a bag and that other vendors will think you're not polite as they see your customers leaving with things in hand...

This is yet another part of Thai culture that will take generation to change!

I believe most of the Thai people are quite poor. A plastic bag is more valuable to them. For us it is just something to throw away. We do not see it as impolite or stingy to not present one to the buyer.

Maybe if you can collect enough of them it is possible to sell them to some nak recycle plastic guy?

I wonder how long plastic bags have been here. Maybe they are still kind of a cool, new novelty for older people. At some point in the relative, recent past they may have been seen as a special treat that you received with a purchase. Does any one know about this?

Should the seller make a judgment on every individual buyer and determine if they are the kind of person that will be steamed or hurt if they do not get a bag for their investment?

I suspect the cultural behaviors we see around the plastic bags are not a product of poor reasoning. It may be the product of a different value system than ours.

[Dah fahrang]

The real problem isn't with the big stores - although the big stores readily pay lip service and give a publicity push to this latest in a string of ill-conceived campaigns.

I will believe it when I experience it, in my local market! How will all my local 'talard' and 'talard nat' vendors trade without plastic bags?

How ever will I get my pla-tu, pla-chem, gratiem, tao hoo sot and khao hom ma li home from the market on the handlebars of my motorbike thrice weekly?

And how will I manage to drink my gafee yen from the market hand-cart vendor? Or take home hot fresh kuay teow pak tai or hot celabao for lunch?

And how will these same traders decide how much 'tax' to put on the price of a bag to carry fish home in?

Utter b***ocks.

[hardy1943]

Start charging for plastic bags. Problem solved.

And enforce a stiff fine for littering

[MyFriend You]

Thailand without plastic bags?

Funny... almost every 2 or 3 years the same old story. To get rid-off plastic bags out of the "Thai way of live" will need more efforts than a statement from a Ministry. At least a 1y year educational press/tv/radio/ad campaign.

The plastic bag is a part of Thai "culture" - sad but true!

Aaaahhhhh.....but I remember my 'Cha Dum Yen for 1 baht, and 'Pepsi dee bahn' for 2 baht, and every kind of Thai food you could think of in 'plactic bags' to go - we could eat healthy for 10-15 baht a day, and they would always wash the 'plactic bags' and use them again - hey to hel_l with the parasites, they were just friendly fauna for our guts, 'make room for Singha' never gained a kilo in 4 years living in Thailand in the 70's/80's...............food, water, everything was clean then, now we are Modern, Prosperous, Western - everyone is sick, mean, angry, and don't give a rat's @ss for anyone, don't even know your neighbor, hel_l,, I knew my entire village in 79 by name, and most of their kids...............Glad I'm old and I can remember the real Thai - not this 'New MUANG THAI'................but I now live here because I am a 'Falang Thai, Kow sip Kow per cent'........ Tee-ny percent dayo binai?? Bi Teeo Ching Ching sa duay............enjoy what we have left, the mighty Euro is taking over.........soon we will have prices in Euro & Baht.............................

and, and, and, we will be swimming in plastic bags, because contrary to popular belief, Europe taught Asia the art of Chemical Production of Plastic and consequently plastic bags, which Europe & elsewhere we're hungry for became a business, now they are a way of life - 'Toung Plactic' bags were expensive in the 70/80's - thats why Thais washed and re-used them - in 74, a small village outside Samae San was a Recycle Center for everything the US Army and Utaphao would throw away............last time I saw a recycle center is in Vietnam............sad, so sad......Thailand has become so 'Rich' they don't need this, because it simply isn't profitable.........but everytime I go fishing, I also catch 'plactic bag' just for the hel_l of it because every plactic bag I catch saves a Turtle - maybe.......................Khap Kuhn, Chok Dee

[engineer]

Start charging for plastic bags. Problem solved.

Great idea, it works well in Europe and in Northern India ( ! ) but somehow I cant see it working here. What about all that food we buy at the markets, what about those polystirene containers it is put in, they are more of the proble.

For years now I have been refusing plastic bags at 7/11 after i realised how many I was getting in 1 week.

The problem with charging is that it cannot be enforced and equally applied. I hate to say it but Falang will be paying one price and the locals another if they pay at all,.

[Maarten1970]

how about not giving straws when one buys beer cans? lol.

Believe it or not, this is exactly what happened a few weeks back when I bought a can of Leo at my 7-Eleven a few weeks back.

This handing out plastic bags like there's no tomorrow has been annoying me since I came to Thailand (the same goes for excessive use of airco). If charging a small amount per plastic bag works in other countries, I suppose it will work in Thailand as well. After all, money talks everywhere.

Free advise for the authorities: Maybe you can create a tv commercial that shows Thaksin shopping with a reusable bag. A considerable part of the country blindly believes in anything he says and does.

[direct2dance]

I once went with a Thai girl to a Tesco in Udon. I bought a single bottle of shower gel and my hotel was right next door to the Tesco. When I refused to take the plastic bag, the girl was literally embarressed to walk next to me, threw her hands over her face and asked me how I can not be embarressed to walk around with the gel. Again, it was shower gel and not toilet paper or condoms. Anyways, a guard came up to me and I had to show my receipt upon passing the front door. :-)

A propos, why the hel_l do I need a receipt in 7-11?! Apart from being annyoing to get it, it's a total waste! Can't there just be a button to print the receipt in the very unlikely case one wants a receipt?

[Frosty]

We were surprised ,our first time in Taiwan, the store charged for plastic bags. We took our own bags back and reused them the whole time we were there, and re-sold them at the airport ,for a profit , when we left! ( Sorry , the re-selling them part was a lie , couldn't resist!) I can see bags becoming a black market idem in the countries that ban them.

As little as 20 yrs ago everything in Thailand was served in banana leaves or coconut shells . The vendor couldn't afford plastic bags and they were not as accessible!

I think the writer in the original article meant " Plastic does not de compose on it's own....".

[backsoon]

This is daft. I now have six canvas bags handed to me free by reps at IMPACT, Queen Sirikit Centre and various SkyTrain stations. I take them with me to Carrefour and give them to the check out girl before the goods I'm buying. Never had a problem. Take one to 7 and hold it open for the shop assistant to put things in.

Relax, guys-n-girls. It is a good initiative... At least they started TALKING about necessity to cut pollution. It's a long LONG way from here. But, as usual, a complex approach is needed.

1) BAN production, sale and import of non-bio-degradable bags. Say, in 6 months from now, to allow industry and retailers to adjust.

2) Decree for all points of sale to charge about 3 Bht for each bag. Money goes in favour of local environement protection organisation. This can be done effective immediately.

3) Encourage subsidised (cheap) sales of good quality, lasting, attractive biodegradable bags. Do not turn this into another superprofit quick buck making exersize.

4) Educate people. When the sign 'KEEP MY COUNTRY CLEAN' on millions of bags, paperbags, wrappers, etc. will reach the old and young thais, just like 'LONG LIVE THE KING' (which I admire and respect!), only than we will see the sizable, noticeable results.

GOOD LUCK TO US ALL....

[anon467367354]

This is typical the human race (or Thailand??)

Of course cutting back is a good thing, but.... why not have some campaigns in radio-TV

trying people here to stop their throwing away plastic garbage just along the roads. This

beutiful country, is one of the most unclean places I have ever seen in my entire life.

Suggestion, why not use the Thai King.. People here love him ( well deserved) and they LISTEN

TO HIM.... he can just say... -"It is time for us Thai now to make our country a clean and safe

place for us all"

Glegolo, Chaiyaphum

How about this is the Kingdom of Thailand? It belongs to his Majesty the King. Anybody that lives here does so by the grace that comes from him. How dares ye that throws trash around the King's domain? I mean, how disrespectful is it to litter? Answer, very! the problem is somebody is paid to pick up the pieces, and respect is just a required act of politeness and just that, an act. It seems the Thai people are not quick to consider anything outside of the moment. The actions they take that effect a large group, ie. loudspeakers etc, does not extend past the boundaries of their self-created realm, and why should it?

[new2thai]

Cutting back on plastic bags

BANGKOK: -- On the occasion of Earth Day yesterday, the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry launched a campaign to cut plastic-bag consumption in the country by at least 10 per cent. Currently, Thais dispose of 1,800 tonnes of used plastic bags every day.

Can that number be right?

If 1 tonne = 1,000 kgs or 1,000,000 grams, and the average shopping bag (according to online sources) weighs 5.5 grams, and if Thais are diposing of 1,800 tonnes daily, that would work out to 327,272,727 bags everyday. In a country of 65,000,000 people that would work out to each and every Thai disposing of just over 5 bags each day, or 35 a week. And remember, that's 5 for each Thai including babies, school children, the elderly, etc. Seems ridiculously high to me, but perhaps my math is wrong.

Thank you for that. I thought exactly the same thing and couldn't get my head around the numbers. I was going to try and work it out before posting when I got down to your post. It would have taken me hours to work that out though !!

[wileycoyote]

I hope it works

[blakegeee]

Cutting back on plastic bags

BANGKOK: -- On the occasion of Earth Day yesterday, the Natural Resource and Environment Ministry launched a campaign to cut plastic-bag consumption in the country by at least 10 per cent. Currently, Thais dispose of 1,800 tonnes of used plastic bags every day.

Can that number be right?

If 1 tonne = 1,000 kgs or 1,000,000 grams, and the average shopping bag (according to online sources) weighs 5.5 grams, and if Thais are diposing of 1,800 tonnes daily, that would work out to 327,272,727 bags everyday. In a country of 65,000,000 people that would work out to each and every Thai disposing of just over 5 bags each day, or 35 a week. And remember, that's 5 for each Thai including babies, school children, the elderly, etc. Seems ridiculously high to me, but perhaps my math is wrong.

That sounds about right to me. Just by getting noodle soup to go, you use atleast 4 bags and thats just one meal. These changes are happening worldwide and I think its great. I am also a culprit but with a little incentive I will bring my own green bag. If they just charge a few baht per bag, than a lot of people will think twice surely and it won't take long.

[spidermike007]

That is such an unbelievable bit on nonsense. I shop everywhere in Samui, with bags made of recycled material, from the US. Not only does everyone give

me a look of approval, but I also get people saying how they applaud my efforts to save the island. If this guy wants to comfort himself with the delusion

that he uses plastic because he is trying to save time, let him go ahead. But, we should not believe a word he says, as he is obviously looking for an excuse

to justify his sloth, and laziness. It is very easy to save plastic. Just avoid using it. Shopping with bags you can use 500 times is a good place to start.

Mike Macarelli

Koh Samui

[new2thai]

Back here in the UK when out walking your dog you must BY LAW dispose of your dogs sh1t in a plastic bag. These do gooders who brought that law out don't realise that a dog turd has a life of about 10 DAYS before it goes back to nature...ie eaten up by bugs and washed away by rain. When you put it in a plastic bag it takes up to 10 years to bio-degrade and even with the specially designed poop bags it still takes up to 4 years to bio-degrade.. The downside now is that everywhere you look there are plastic bags whith turds in , caught up in trees or just thrown over some wall, as nobody wants to carry a bag of sh1t home. YES PLASTIC BAGS ARE A PAIN.

[Lizard]

Thailand not using plastic bags, LOL LOL LOL LOL when hel_l freezes over maybe.

[CrossBones]

Thailand concerned about the world? I thought Thailand was the center of the universe and all other countries were just an illusion.

[CrossBones]

Thailand concerned about the world? I thought Thailand was the center of the universe and all other countries were just an illusion.

They should put bins on the roads to put your rubbish into... 7-11 seem to be the only people providing this service.

[webfact]

Thailand concerned about the world? I thought Thailand was the center of the universe and all other countries were just an illusion.

They should put bins on the roads to put your rubbish into... 7-11 seem to be the only people providing this service.

actually there were bins in the streets and at some shops. But all was taken away by the time the bombings took place in Bangkok. Guess it was 2 or 3 years ago?

But indeed it is bloody difficult to find any garbage bin!

[doggie888888]

Back here in the UK when out walking your dog you must BY LAW dispose of your dogs sh1t in a plastic bag. These do gooders who brought that law out don't realise that a dog turd has a life of about 10 DAYS before it goes back to nature...ie eaten up by bugs and washed away by rain. When you put it in a plastic bag it takes up to 10 years to bio-degrade and even with the specially designed poop bags it still takes up to 4 years to bio-degrade.. The downside now is that everywhere you look there are plastic bags whith turds in , caught up in trees or just thrown over some wall, as nobody wants to carry a bag of sh1t home. YES PLASTIC BAGS ARE A PAIN.

I think the law says you must pick it up....does not specify with plastic bag or poo scoop or whatever. Use newspapers or brown paper bags and then chuck it in your compost!

[PATLOM]

Will it also involved "27 cm plastic bags" (condoms) used by million evey day ???????????

Great inflation of natality expected !!!!!

[doggie888888]

I am happy that you get bags in Thailand. A nightmare in Europe if you want to buy more than planned and do not have a bag for it. In addition to this I need them for my garbage and other things.

Most of them get dissolved very quickly. I think taking a bike or public transport for shopping would save MUCH more pollution than going there by car and reusable bag.

So better to get rid of the cars. THEY are a nightmare here in Pattaya - not the plastic bags...

Please go to beach before the vendors prepare it for the day....the beaches are strewn with plastics of all types. When the tides and currents are in a particular direction, Wongamat beach is like a rubbish tip. So please do not say plastic bags are not an issue in Pattaya, because it is simply untrue.

[norwayeagle]

Hi. Me want 2 say something 2 piiv,pivv,voff voff .More plastic, with Reasonable..Prices,brought back fore recycle. Put them in thy "plastic dumpsters" ,(or wherever,),it all will be gone next day as, morningdew vanish in sun.And everybody happy,! (at least 4 a while)

[wasabi]

Thailand without plastic bags?

The plastic bag is a part of Thai "culture" - sad but true!

So true. Loy Kratong, Song Kran, The Royal Palace and plastic bags are all very deeply rooted in Thai culture.

[wasabi]

..., and I always say (in my broken Thai) mee plastic paw uban, krap.

My 'mai au tung' (German transscription) is usually quite successful

"mai sai tung" or "mai au plastic" works also

I say this every time and it's funny the look of mild horror I get in response to the weird Farang who doesn't want a plastic bag for his pack of gum. It gives Thai's a feeling of great joy and well being to use plastic bags. It's encoded in their DNA. In fact their DNA is made of plastic. Polluting and destroying their environment IS what they love and crave. Breathing dirty polluted air, drinking septic water is adored by all because it's what they do and actions speak louder than words.

When are they going to stop with all these BS lip service Amazing Thailand campaigns and actually DO SOMETHING. NEVER!! Thailand is a glossy brochure with all the pages upside-down or missing inside.

Edited April 23, 2009 by wasabi