Villagers Burning Garbage, What To Do ?

[ManilaLover]

I think you should suggest to the Poo Yai Baan that he bring in an international refuse disposal consultant who could advise your home owners association how to best handle this problem. He might advise, for example, that each household purchase trash compactors which would allow for easy collection and disposal by a certified agency to the local refuse dumping area.

Get real, you live amongst a bunch of under educated peasants, what to you really expect them to do?

One of the best suggestions in years, international consultants can help Thailand a big step forward (if not the only solution!) foreign waste management consultant, foreign traffic safety consultant are badly needed really, beside that foreign tourist promotion consultants that can put Thailand back on the map. A foreign city management consultant that can give Chiangmai a big push upwards and help make it a pleasant city again, with car free zones, newly painted buildings, standardizing sidewalks, a new taxi system (past time for those filthy songteaws and tuktuks) etc. etc.

Amen !

[jubby]

I think you should suggest to the Poo Yai Baan that he bring in an international refuse disposal consultant who could advise your home owners association how to best handle this problem. He might advise, for example, that each household purchase trash compactors which would allow for easy collection and disposal by a certified agency to the local refuse dumping area.

Get real, you live amongst a bunch of under educated peasants, what to you really expect them to do?

One of the best suggestions in years, international consultants can help Thailand a big step forward (if not the only solution!) foreign waste management consultant, foreign traffic safety consultant are badly needed really, beside that foreign tourist promotion consultants that can put Thailand back on the map. A foreign city management consultant that can give Chiangmai a big push upwards and help make it a pleasant city again, with car free zones, newly painted buildings, standardizing sidewalks, a new taxi system (past time for those filthy songteaws and tuktuks) etc. etc.

Amen !

Make it Just like the Netherlands then . Becareful what you wish for

[rossigee]

Sometimes i actually think Thailand is better organized than the west,recycleable stuff like cardboard tins and bottles are collected by people who earn there entire living from it,and you are also given money for them to take it away! this does not happen in the west.Just after new year the man was round with his cart and scales...easy and a good service!

You can think of anything in Thailand and it is used and recycled many times to get the most out of it,the Thais are past masters at getting something out of nothing and where materials come into again they are really versatile and creative.

The burning does go on as i have seen it a lot but nothing worse than the illegal tipping that goes on in the west,you will not stop them burning stuff it is ingrained especially in the villages,maybe in the cities there is more of a chance?

Personally, I have baskets out the back of the house where I (and family/friends) throw plastic and glass bottles, cans, paper, and any other recyclable stuff. There used to be a guy come round in the a battered old pick-up every couple of weeks with a set of scales, separate out the stuff he could use/sell and pay me for it. Don't know what happened to him, but these days I just put the baskets in the truck once a fortnight or so and take them round the corner to a small, local, family-run private recycling plant, that weigh it and buy it. I usually get 50baht or so for a couple of baskets worth, which I use to buy a little bottle of lao kao on the way back home ;^)

Anything I can't recycle (nappies etc) I burn myself, with the help of an old oil drum with some holes in the bottom, a couple of old breeze blocks and an old rusty barbecue grid - and a couple of dry coconut palms and a lighter. The ash that comes out the bottom makes great fertiliser for the garden. We used to put it in a basket at the end of the drive for the garbage collection, but local dogs would just drag the stuff all across everyone's gardens during the night, so I'd have to collect it all again each morning. Sometimes they wouldn't come and collect it for a couple of weeks, so one basket wasn't always enough. And anyway, when they collect it, they just cart it round the corner to a large, public, open air dumping ground (right next to the beach!) where it all gets burned. Local council been promising for 10+ yrs to find a more appropriate place and method, but nothing gets done from term to term. I figure I'll save them all the hassle, and just deal with it myself! What else can I do with it?! Educate me!

hel_l, all things considered, it's better here than in the UK, where the more waste you produce, recyclable or not, they more you're charged by your local council to have it taken away! Where's the capitalism in that?!

[ManilaLover]

Make it Just like the Netherlands then . Becareful what you wish for

actually the opposite is happening, thai tuktuks taking the place of mercedes benz taxis in the bigger cities...

just the cloggs wearing cheeseheads do not shout 'hello tuktuk' to innocent pedestrians

[RPCVguy]

Sometimes i actually think Thailand is better organized than the west,recycleable stuff like cardboard tins and bottles are collected by people who earn there entire living from it,and you are also given money for them to take it away! this does not happen in the west.Just after new year the man was round with his cart and scales...easy and a good service!

You can think of anything in Thailand and it is used and recycled many times to get the most out of it,the Thais are past masters at getting something out of nothing and where materials come into again they are really versatile and creative.

The burning does go on as i have seen it a lot but nothing worse than the illegal tipping that goes on in the west,you will not stop them burning stuff it is ingrained especially in the villages,maybe in the cities there is more of a chance?

Once upon a time I thought I'd help with some of the burning - to show how not to generate so much smoke. LOL, the clean, hot fire turned the soil beneath to pottery, and there was precious little of the pot-ash desired for enriching some soils. Now as I've watched more and butted in less, I've seen that there are usually un-communicated needs being met by the way things are done. No one, neither you nor the Thai, likes the soot, ... but the reduction of vegetative waste and production of secondary materials is what others may need to sustain a living.

[OZEMADE]

BURN YOURS AS WELL, THEY DONT CARE SO WHY SHOULD YOU.

[mistresserika]

My wife burns the rubbish every evening because there is no garbage collection where we live. I close the all windows, works for me.

What a pity that you don't have a car because then you could bring it away once a week, that burning is a very bad habit !!!

If garbage collection was a regular thing i dont think thais would burn.On Samui there is a kind of garbage collection but not regular or big enough for the volumne of trash.I have seen thais put out their rubbish in black plastic bags ready for collection,so it can work,just have to syphon off tea money to pay for it

I live in Samui also, it's a filthy place. Yes there are collections all over the villages, but for most people 10 meters is too far to walk. Apart from the daily coconut fires, they burn on the roadsides also. There is a constant blanket of smog over many areas.

[paulchiangmai]

Have you thought of doing the same as half the population of Chiang Mai do ? Find the nearest ring road and dump it by the truckload.

[reallyok]

Ever heard of the brown paper bag full of dog shit, light it on fire

and leave it in front of the door.

What have you been imbibbing ? Your still pi$$ed from last night right !?

Got some brown paper bags, where can i buy some dogshit

[reallyok]

Well, i don't know which part of the UK you are 'ratting' on about, but i was on holiday in Dorset from oz, back in september, and they were very 'fussy' about putting out their seperated and recyclable garbage to be collected in different coloured bags etc., never seen this in Thailand.............. yet !

The point i was making is that in the Uk you actually have to pay a bloody lot of money to get your recycling taken away

(council tax)the same as you do in Aus yes? mine was 1000 pound last year!

In Thailand YOU get payed for supplying your rubbish for someone to come and sort it and dispose of it ok!! that of course is in the village where i live...so as you kindly put it,uninformed rubbish it is not!

As for the mass waste management and where it eventually ends up??? land fill sites and recycling centres then this as i stated in my post is way behind the west and of course Australia by many a year.

And also in the uk fly tipping is a massive problem due to the excessive fees charged to local contractors by landfill sites.

I hope i have made it clear now for you,out of interest how much garbage tax do you pay in Aus for the pleasure of getting your rubbish taken away?

Well to be honest ...........Nothing ! as i live in an area which does not have the garbage collection. As stated there is a nearby FREE tip which in fact looks like a park on approach, very clean and tidy. These tips are very well run and very busy.

[Tanaka]

here too

wife pretty upset. chinese neighbors called already the police.

police can't do anything as the place is between two districts so both are not responsible.....

The other thing is that they are shooting there birds all the time and the lead is falling down on our house....

Get a gun and given them back their lead. Recycled. Don't get caught.

[Tanaka]

buy your self 100kgs of dried chilli and a mask, when they burn their garbage, take a dozen kgs of chilli out back and let it burn.... see how they like burning eyes and lungs

Better still, go put the chili in their fires.

[Tanaka]

Good suggestion, Ballpoint. Always better, particularly in Thailand, to be reasonable and rational when you want action in these matters.

I still maintain you should use the avatar where he actually gets hit in the head ! Seeing it is like having a very satisfying dream.....

Absolutely on the spot! Being rational always works in Thailand. Especially if farang tries to tell thai what is a rational thing to do.

[yabaaaa]

My wife burns the rubbish every evening because there is no garbage collection where we live. I close the all windows, works for me.

What a pity that you don't have a car because then you could bring it away once a week, that burning is a very bad habit !!!

If garbage collection was a regular thing i dont think thais would burn.On Samui there is a kind of garbage collection but not regular or big enough for the volumne of trash.I have seen thais put out their rubbish in black plastic bags ready for collection,so it can work,just have to syphon off tea money to pay for it

I live in Samui also, it's a filthy place. Yes there are collections all over the villages, but for most people 10 meters is too far to walk. Apart from the daily coconut fires, they burn on the roadsides also. There is a constant blanket of smog over many areas.

10 metres is too far in BAngkok also. I have some condos for rent and one woman who lives opposite me kept putting her rubbish outside her door and just down in the emergency stairs area knowing everyday the cleaners would move it. The correct place on each floor was probably a 10 metre walk to the communal bins that were on each floor.

Everyday I kept hanging her bag of rubbish back on her door for her, nothing changed until my wife called the security guys to tell her not to put it oiutside her rooms and also the cleaners were told under no circumstances to put it in the bin for her but to hang it back on her door. Eventually she "almost" got the message, now she takes it to the communal bins and........................leaves it at the side of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She's just an idle selfish cow IMO.

[MyphuketLife]

This one is better IMO, sorry our car spoils it

Here it is with the car gone.