Trashing Phuket

[Sadiegirl1975]

In this week's Phuket Gazette there were no less than than 3 articles reporting about garbage and trash. Having visited Phuket recently it is something that I am only too much aware of. Phuket is not an industrial place, it is a place that people save hard to visit. I am sorry but I do not want to see piles or rotting trash in the street and certainly not in the sea and on the beaches. I will now choose to holiday elsewhere, at least where it is clean and people take pride in their community's appearance. Come on Phuket use some common sense

[likewise]

THe whole of thailand is one open garbage dump, sad but true.

[BillR]

you've made 3 posts telling us you will Holiday elsewhere. I think we get it.

[McFarang]

THe whole of thailand is one open garbage dump, sad but true.

That's is not entirely true I find that the further south you go the worse it gets.I recently visited Roi Et in the North East and found it compared to Phuket 100% cleaner & tidy. It may have something to do with the mentality as I find that the dirtiest places where garbage is strewn is that sort of area.

Edited February 28, 2011 by LivinginKata
racist remark removed

[chiang mai]

Residents of my wife's village in Sukhothai are required to pay 10 Baht a month for waste/rubbish collection and nobody will pay, instead they burn everything, accumulate it or generally discard it somewhere. I actually considered paying the village costs for this for a year, just to see if it would change their attitudes, I decided against it because I don't believe it would!

[grumpyoldman]

So Sadie1975 comes to Phuket, then throws out three posts saying she will not be back. Interesting......................

"Having visited Phuket recently it is something that I am only too much aware of."

Really, so when you were here did you recycle your plastic bags from the minimarts, use the same ones multiple times or did you just throw them in the hotel garbage and get more, being so aware and all. Do you or any of your friends smoke cigarettes (?), if so did you always find a receptacle for buts, or like many of the idiots visiting and living here figure the beach is one big ashtray?

"Phuket is not an industrial place, it is a place that people save hard to visit."

Really, so no one actually lives here.............sorry but garbage is a worldwide problem, check the landfill situation in many states in the U.S., things might appear to be "clean" on the streets but not too far away ground water is being contaminated by overfilled landfills.

Please advise on your next vacation destination, we'll be interested studying the way garbage is handled there.

[barney42bb]

Yes Indeed...well said.

Many have the same sentiments...including myself...a frequent visitor for 10 years....in the past I hasten to add.

Phuket is losing many friends...with it's over pricing.... over building... Greed and Multi Scam mentaility.

Hence many like you and I have abandoned the place.

Of course Any criticisms made..does not go down well with Ex-Pats that have been foolish enough to sink all their assets there...with little or No ability to return.

To think in the late 80's apart from Phuket Town...the rest of the Island was quaint beaches with little or no building.

Now its Concrete Mixer paradise...Thailand surely lost it's Jewell in the Crown.

[amyb]

So Sadie1975 comes to Phuket, then throws out three posts saying she will not be back. Interesting......................

"Having visited Phuket recently it is something that I am only too much aware of."

Really, so when you were here did you recycle your plastic bags from the minimarts, use the same ones multiple times or did you just throw them in the hotel garbage and get more, being so aware and all. Do you or any of your friends smoke cigarettes (?), if so did you always find a receptacle for buts, or like many of the idiots visiting and living here figure the beach is one big ashtray?

"Phuket is not an industrial place, it is a place that people save hard to visit."

Really, so no one actually lives here.............sorry but garbage is a worldwide problem, check the landfill situation in many states in the U.S., things might appear to be "clean" on the streets but not too far away ground water is being contaminated by overfilled landfills.

Please advise on your next vacation destination, we'll be interested studying the way garbage is handled there.

well said, GOM, well said!

[amyb]

Yes Indeed...well said.

Many have the same sentiments...including myself...a frequent visitor for 10 years....in the past I hasten to add.

Phuket is losing many friends...with it's over pricing.... over building... Greed and Multi Scam mentaility.

Hence many like you and I have abandoned the place.

Of course Any criticisms made..does not go down well with Ex-Pats that have been foolish enough to sink all their assets there...with little or No ability to return.

To think in the late 80's apart from Phuket Town...the rest of the Island was quaint beaches with little or no building.

Now its Concrete Mixer paradise...Thailand surely lost it's Jewell in the Crown.

If you were a frequent visitor in the past, and you have "abandoned" the place, then why waste your time posting on this forum? I love how haters like yourself think Phuket is the only tropical island that has gone downhill. It's not. Greed is everywhere. Irresponsible tourism is everywhere. Not just in Phuket or Thailand.

[Wellington]

So Sadie1975 comes to Phuket, then throws out three posts saying she will not be back. Interesting......................

"Having visited Phuket recently it is something that I am only too much aware of."

Really, so when you were here did you recycle your plastic bags from the minimarts, use the same ones multiple times or did you just throw them in the hotel garbage and get more, being so aware and all. Do you or any of your friends smoke cigarettes (?), if so did you always find a receptacle for buts, or like many of the idiots visiting and living here figure the beach is one big ashtray?

"Phuket is not an industrial place, it is a place that people save hard to visit."

Really, so no one actually lives here.............sorry but garbage is a worldwide problem, check the landfill situation in many states in the U.S., things might appear to be "clean" on the streets but not too far away ground water is being contaminated by overfilled landfills.

Please advise on your next vacation destination, we'll be interested studying the way garbage is handled there.

well said, GOM, well said!

Heartily agree,

I've been here 10 years and love it, but not so much that I don't see the problems (scams,Tuk Tuks,Taxis blah blah), but we do take a holiday to Europe to see children and family every June and I have noticed the filth along the central reservations of roads like the A3,M! etc is far worse than heree.

We have a few problem areas,yes,seems The Thais like to dump on less used road verges such as (i know not it's name) the recently new connecting road from the main Honda garage to the University and thence Katu, where the piles of rubbish and thus blown litter is awful.

But overall Phuket is no worse than any other country ( well except Switzerland and Singapore) and we have to accept the habits.

Edited February 28, 2011 by LivinginKata
racial remark removed

[KarenBravo]

The Thais like to dump on less used road verges such as (i know not it's name) the recently new connecting road from the main Honda garage to the University and thence Katu,

It's called Chao Fah Thani road. That's three Chao Fah roads now.

[Wellington]

The Thais like to dump on less used road verges such as (i know not it's name) the recently new connecting road from the main Honda garage to the University and thence Katu,

It's called Chao Fah Thani road. That's three Chao Fah roads now.

Thanks.

Have you driven through there recently?

[teslawasrobbed]

Yes Indeed...well said.

Many have the same sentiments...including myself...a frequent visitor for 10 years....in the past I hasten to add.

Phuket is losing many friends...with it's over pricing.... over building... Greed and Multi Scam mentaility.

Hence many like you and I have abandoned the place.

Of course Any criticisms made..does not go down well with Ex-Pats that have been foolish enough to sink all their assets there...with little or No ability to return.

To think in the late 80's apart from Phuket Town...the rest of the Island was quaint beaches with little or no building.

Now its Concrete Mixer paradise...Thailand surely lost it's Jewell in the Crown.

"Phuket is losing many friends" yet last year there were a record number of arrivals to the island. Over pricing, over building and greed are everywhere and not just isolated to Phuket. Your assumption that expats are foolish to invest in Phuket with little or no ability of a return only shows that you dont have a clue what you are talking about.

[geriatrickid]

If you were a frequent visitor in the past, and you have "abandoned" the place, then why waste your time posting on this forum? I love how haters like yourself think Phuket is the only tropical island that has gone downhill. It's not. Greed is everywhere. Irresponsible tourism is everywhere. Not just in Phuket or Thailand.

I sympathize with the OP. Let's compare Krabi and Phuket. Krabi's government is at least making an effort to preserve its greatest asset, the beach by addressing the plague of jetskis and crowded beach chairs. That in itself deserves giving praise. Phuket with a bigger tax base can't even manage to put out public trash bins. When a place is allowed to become filthy it encourages more filth. There is probably as much corruption on Krabi as in Phuket, yet the powers that be realize that the tourists will not come if they are required to sit in filth. Phuket is not Pattaya, and promotes itself as an exotic family destination. There is nothing family friendly or exotic about trash.

[KarenBravo]

[Phuket with a bigger tax base can't even manage to put out public trash bins.

All trash bins were taken down after the Bali bombing.

[ScubaBuddha]

Residents of my wife's village in Sukhothai are required to pay 10 Baht a month for waste/rubbish collection and nobody will pay, instead they burn everything, accumulate it or generally discard it somewhere. I actually considered paying the village costs for this for a year, just to see if it would change their attitudes, I decided against it because I don't believe it would!

Walked down to Cape Promthep with the gf the other day. I commented on the amount of garbage discarded along the trail. (And near the water between some boulders we actually stumbled across a makeshift toilet the fisherman and fisherwoman had made. ) Gf made the comment that littering is much worse in her home of Chaiyaphum in northeast Thailand, so the problem is not unique to Phuket.

One of the most vivid images I have from my trip to the Philippines is of a large river which had fields of garbage piled along it's banks and families living in and around it, scavenging for recyclables.

Edited February 28, 2011 by ScubaBuddha

[katasyd]

Not another whiney thread about this.

Pick it up as you walk along and maybe Thai's will follow suit.

[amyb]

If you were a frequent visitor in the past, and you have "abandoned" the place, then why waste your time posting on this forum? I love how haters like yourself think Phuket is the only tropical island that has gone downhill. It's not. Greed is everywhere. Irresponsible tourism is everywhere. Not just in Phuket or Thailand.

I sympathize with the OP. Let's compare Krabi and Phuket. Krabi's government is at least making an effort to preserve its greatest asset, the beach by addressing the plague of jetskis and crowded beach chairs. That in itself deserves giving praise. Phuket with a bigger tax base can't even manage to put out public trash bins. When a place is allowed to become filthy it encourages more filth. There is probably as much corruption on Krabi as in Phuket, yet the powers that be realize that the tourists will not come if they are required to sit in filth. Phuket is not Pattaya, and promotes itself as an exotic family destination. There is nothing family friendly or exotic about trash.

I do not disagree with you on this. Krabi is making giant leaps to save the beach, and I do believe what is happening in Krabi is praiseworthy (if only too late to save Railay). There are no easy answers or solutions for Phuket. I believe all of us who live here and anyone who visits here does either know or realize that. However, the constant bitching & moaning about how terrible Phuket is does get tiresome. I already said it today--greed and irresponsible tourism are everywhere...as are corruption, crime, tuk tuk mafias and trash. Consistently pointing the finger at Phuket isn't going to help...unless the finger pointing results in active solutions.

[amyb]

Not another whiney thread about this.

Pick it up as you walk along and maybe Thai's will follow suit.

Maybe the Thais will follow suit? You are generalizing...

I know Thais could use a lesson when it comes to garbage bins, but more times that not when I've been at Yanui or Nai Harn beach, it's been foreigners throwing their sh*t about.

[katasyd]

Not another whiney thread about this.

Pick it up as you walk along and maybe Thai's will follow suit.

Maybe the Thais will follow suit? You are generalizing...

I know Thais could use a lesson when it comes to garbage bins, but more times that not when I've been at Yanui or Nai Harn beach, it's been foreigners throwing their sh*t about.

I'm not complaining about the rubbish and it doesn't bother me at all.

Instead of complaining here on the forums where nothing gets done, go out and do something about it.

Maybe if the tessaban or beach lounge chair operators provide bins for tourists, they will have somewhere to put the rubbish.

The locals need to look after the place because their future and childrens future that depends on it.

At the moment, it's all take take take and they put nothing back into the place.

[inmysights]

Not another whiney thread about this.

Pick it up as you walk along and maybe Thai's will follow suit.

Well. I'd be happy to accompany you (and several oxen carts) to 'pick up' the truly apalling amount of rubbish strewn throughout the piss filled sois of Sai Yuan. What a fortnight of fun we'd have, each and every month.

Even the local Thais comment upon how disgusting it is. All these pool 'willas', no concrete roads and garbage garbage garbage EVERYbloodywhere.

I had thought I'd tackle it myself, but as a former poster said re paying for the orborjor to take it away on a regular basis, the locals would only pocket the money/keep dumping.

Pragmatically, and I know this might be unpopular, the local orborjors should up the fees to cover the costs of those who won't pay up. At least that would keep it clean, and maybe just piss off a few 'payers' into some action insofar as taking it upon themselves to report these idle <deleted>.

Edited February 28, 2011 by inmysights

[chiang mai]

Residents of my wife's village in Sukhothai are required to pay 10 Baht a month for waste/rubbish collection and nobody will pay, instead they burn everything, accumulate it or generally discard it somewhere. I actually considered paying the village costs for this for a year, just to see if it would change their attitudes, I decided against it because I don't believe it would!

Walked down to Cape Promthep with the gf the other day. I commented on the amount of garbage discarded along the trail. (And near the water between some boulders we actually stumbled across a makeshift toilet the fisherman and fisherwoman had made. ) Gf made the comment that littering is much worse in her home of Chaiyaphum in northeast Thailand, so the problem is not unique to Phuket.

One of the most vivid images I have from my trip to the Philippines is of a large river which had fields of garbage piled along it's banks and families living in and around it, scavenging for recyclables.

I've seen that same sight and it's not pleasant, although it is quite an amazing spectacle - the thought that occurred to me as I looked at it was, I wonder how much of this is rubbish exported from other countries, exported so that the good citizens don't have to look at it!

[Felt 35]

There are no easy answers or solutions for Phuket. I believe all of us who live here and anyone who visits here does either know or realize that

If the people with the authority had the will and wanted to use some of the budget to educate people, invest in more incinerators and put waste management as a top agenda it would not be difficult at all. But hey the trash not goes away with looking at it when discussing the problem.

[amyb]

There are no easy answers or solutions for Phuket. I believe all of us who live here and anyone who visits here does either know or realize that

If the people with the authority had the will and wanted to use some of the budget to educate people, invest in more incinerators and put waste management as a top agenda it would not be difficult at all. But hey the trash not goes away with looking at it when discussing the problem.

You are spot on. It's a sad story that the people with authority in Phuket do not seem to care...I am not going to preach to the choir and say I do a million things more than any other person living here to protect the environment, because let's face it, I don't. I do however pick up trash around my neighborhood and on the beach (or in the sea) when I see it. I do use an ashtray for my cigarettes. I do separate my trash and hand over the bottles & cans to a little guy who turns them in for money each week. I've helped with various beach clean-ups and I avoid taking plastic bags whenever possible.

Is this enough to help the whole of Phuket? Absolutely not, but I do try to do what I can.

[Semper]

THe whole of thailand is one open garbage dump, sad but true.

That's is not entirely true I find that the further south you go the worse it gets.I recently visited Roi Et in the North East and found it compared to Phuket 100% cleaner & tidy. It may have something to do with the mentality as I find that the dirtiest places where garbage is strewn is that sort of area.

You are welcome to visit Chiang Mai and I will show you it's same as the south.

[LivinLOS]

Residents of my wife's village in Sukhothai are required to pay 10 Baht a month for waste/rubbish collection and nobody will pay, instead they burn everything, accumulate it or generally discard it somewhere. I actually considered paying the village costs for this for a year, just to see if it would change their attitudes, I decided against it because I don't believe it would!

Walked down to Cape Promthep with the gf the other day. I commented on the amount of garbage discarded along the trail. (And near the water between some boulders we actually stumbled across a makeshift toilet the fisherman and fisherwoman had made. ) Gf made the comment that littering is much worse in her home of Chaiyaphum in northeast Thailand, so the problem is not unique to Phuket.

One of the most vivid images I have from my trip to the Philippines is of a large river which had fields of garbage piled along it's banks and families living in and around it, scavenging for recyclables.

I cant speak for Chiyaphum but I will say theres 2 aspects.. One is the populations garbage disposal and another is the civic responsibility of the or bor tor and or bor jor's.

On part 1 I will say some Thais just tend to be happy to live surrounded by their own refuse. On a recent trip to the baan you just see house after house and theres piles (if its even that tidy) of refuse surrounding the home.. Just the idea that if you throw it out the door its 'gone' and so they live surrounded by this day in day out. At the baan I was visiting they didnt even make a half hearted effort to burn it. If thats your attitude to garbage, if thats 'normal' I guess its not much of a priority.

Yet to contrast that on the second aspect, I am constantly surprised how far 'poorer' regions manage their roadside and public areas so much better than rich areas taking in millions of baht in over and under the table payments. Its possible to travel around the north, through villages which are obviously very poor compared to Phuket.. Yet the streets are flanked by planted flowers, have trimmed flower beds and displays, bougainvillea planted in the central reservation, and in general just a far more attractive layout and execution. Yet these communities must have tiny tiny %'ages of the revenue that Phukets OBT/OBJ's must have. Why can they manage to put back into the community while Phukets simply seem to manage to build themselves a new private owned guest house. You only have to ask the kind of payments businesses have to make to operate on Phuket to know that huge amounts of money go into the OBT/OBJ system and seem to go nowhere.

[LivinLOS]

I already said it today--greed and irresponsible tourism are everywhere...as are corruption, crime, tuk tuk mafias and trash.

Tuk Tuk mafia are everywhere ?? Interesting idea..

As to destruction being everywhere.. Been to Palawan lately ?? The Perhentian Islands seem to be trying their best to resist mass tourism and short term money. Compare and contrast that to the fate of Lippe and the Turatao Isl here, Thailand just rushes to incredibly short term goals (dynamite fishing, cyanide'ing reefs, rampant unrestricted development etc). Its just one of these developing world things.

[stevenl]

dynamite fishing, cyanide'ing reefs

No, not in Thailand.

Thai fishermen do that, but nearly always over the border with Burma.

[LivinLOS]

dynamite fishing, cyanide'ing reefs

No, not in Thailand.

Thai fishermen do that, but nearly always over the border with Burma.

So all those tropical fish they catch people with on Phuket are caught how.. Its regularly reported they are collected with cyanide.

Dynamite fishing reported by someone I know who lives up towards Ranong.

[LivinLOS]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/thailand/182243-dynamite-fishing-near-phuket.html

Oddly your the second poster in the thread mentioning it here..

Lots and lots of hits when looking online.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2010/article8261.html