Too Much Plastic!

[pmgthailand]

I bought some deli meat in a Certain Food Hall in Central today and was shocked by the amount of plastic packaging used for a 100g of meat. In Pattaya last week bought the same and it came in waxed paper in a tiny resealable bag. Big difference. All their politically correct talk about plastic carrier bags, look at this. Shame on you CFH!

:realangry:

[BillR]

ohhh the horror. and to think the electricity you wasted snapping a photo of it all. Not to mention your time.

Edited December 7, 2010 by BillR

[pmgthailand]

Phuket Landfill that grows by 300 tonnes a day!

ohhh the horror. and to think the electricity you wasted snapping a photo of it all. Not to mention your time.

Edited December 7, 2010 by pmgthailand

[BillR]

Thailand is not the only country with a landfill or plastic. Get over it.

Edited December 7, 2010 by BillR

[phaethon]

I went into a Penang supermarket the other week, got to the cashier and was pointed to a sign to the effect that, on government orders, I couldn't have any plastic bags on that particular day (I think it was three days of the weeks it applies). I put all the stuff back and left. Went to a 7-11 where they did give me a bag.

Well intentioned? Maybe, but a bit unfair on tourists who turn up without a pocket full of last week's shopping bags, and no offer of any alternative like a paper bag or cardboard box.

Having said that, I do my best to pointedly repack everything at (Thai) Carrefour and usually leave a token pile of 25-30% of the bags behind at the checkout.

[pmgthailand]

I do blame the retailers, who for whatever reason, only use plastic packaging. Why don't they don't use paper and cardboard as alternatives, which can come from recycled materials? Every Big Mac used to come in a styro-foam container until people spoke up! There are alternatives, you could put a green marketing spin on it and possibly increase sales?

Rant over!!!

[pmgthailand]

I agree 100%. If everyone just does a little bit it helps, but not being offered any alternative by the retailer, like you said does not help.

I went into a Penang supermarket the other week, got to the cashier and was pointed to a sign to the effect that, on government orders, I couldn't have any plastic bags on that particular day (I think it was three days of the weeks it applies). I put all the stuff back and left. Went to a 7-11 where they did give me a bag.

Well intentioned? Maybe, but a bit unfair on tourists who turn up without a pocket full of last week's shopping bags, and no offer of any alternative like a paper bag or cardboard box.

Having said that, I do my best to pointedly repack everything at (Thai) Carrefour and usually leave a token pile of 25-30% of the bags behind at the checkout.

[LivinLOS]

I do blame the retailers, who for whatever reason, only use plastic packaging. Why don't they don't use paper and cardboard as alternatives, which can come from recycled materials? Every Big Mac used to come in a styro-foam container until people spoke up! There are alternatives, you could put a green marketing spin on it and possibly increase sales?

Rant over!!!

Problem is.. a lot of it is just that.. spin..

Very often the 'recyclable' item has a much larger carbon footprint, when the whole economic 'cradle to grave' lifecycle is considered than the apparently non green alternative.

[DougLee]

They have plastics made from plants that are biodegradable, maybe they are one of those? At my gym thats what they use.

[iSabai]

I do blame the retailers, who for whatever reason, only use plastic packaging. Why don't they don't use paper and cardboard as alternatives, which can come from recycled materials? Every Big Mac used to come in a styro-foam container until people spoke up! There are alternatives, you could put a green marketing spin on it and possibly increase sales?

Rant over!!!

I blame the treehuggers who said we should use plastic because we were depleting all the trees by using paper bags and cardboard.

[petercallen]

The supermarkets should have display of reusable, biodegradable bags near the checkouts.

They should be sold at a very reasonable price or they should give one away for a certain amount of purchases.

There was a display of bags at Carrefour at one stage which i noticed after we went through the checkout.

The next time we went it was gone.

[stevenl]

Totally agree with the OP. A disgrace that this is done, and that the earlier initiative to reduce the amount of plastic bags used on the islands seems to have disappeared in thin air.

[FritsSikkink]

How did the OP go to the mall?

Walking or by car?

[katabeachbum]

Totally agree with the OP. A disgrace that this is done, and that the earlier initiative to reduce the amount of plastic bags used on the islands seems to have disappeared in thin air.

have to disagree on that

most thai women in grocery stores like Tops and Villa market seem to use fabric bags since the plastic campaign

the pile up of garbage is a result of 350k resident capacity, while there are actually approx 1 mill residents in Phuket

[stevenl]

Your experience seems to differ from mine, but i really hope you're right.

Still, i think the shops should pick up their initiative again to reduce the amount of plaftic bags, and not leave it to the whim of a buyer.