Bangkok’s Bad Habit: Plastic Bags
By Sarah Cuiksa


"Mai toung ka/khap."

BANGKOK: -- If it’s not already in your vocabulary, add it. “No bag, please,” is a phrase not often heard at supermarket checkouts or in street vendor transactions. But it should be, given the amount of roadside fruit that’s double-bagged, or the number of iced coffees that come with a plastic handle, or the orange soda served on ice out of a plastic bag. Or that pack of gum the 7-Eleven cashier won’t hesitate to bag.

Bangkok’s plastic bag habit is nothing new. Bloggers have joked about the addiction. Could it be an unwritten rule that everything must be capable of being carried by one finger? Or is it because the capital city has a simple fetish for plastic bags?

Indeed, the “I’d like a bag for my bag, please” habit is a humorous one. But the growing, detrimental environmental implications of it are serious.

Does awareness breed concern?

Thailand’s Department of Environmental Quality Promotion (DEQP) recently annnounced a campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags used by one bag per person, per day. DEQP chief Jatuporn Buruspa cited a study that said plastics account for 20 percent of all garbage, which amounts to about 16 million tons. The survey said Thais use an average of eight bags per person a day. If successful, the cumulative effort would reduce the total number of bags used by a total of 67 million a day.

Customers are asked to decline plastic bags if buying fewer than two items. The campaign also encourages minimizing overall consumption of plastic bags in daily use. It’s a partnership between the DEQP and CP All Co. Ltd., the company that operates Thailand’s 7-Eleven convenience stores.

And it’s not the first time Bangkok has tried to reduce its dependence on plastic bags. Several years ago the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration began the “No Bag, No Baht” educational campaign, in which consumers were given a one baht discount for every 100 baht purchase if they used their own recyclable bags, and charged one baht for each plastic bag used. While encouraging citizens to reduce their use of plastic bags and offering incentives to do so are positive efforts, they likely aren’t going to solve the problem – a problem that ranges from the plastic bag stuck in a sewer grate, to the tiny plastic particles floating in the ocean.

Full Story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/06/02/bangkoks-bad-habit-plastic-bags

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-06-02

Never to late as they say.

Asians cannot see rubbish, all you see right through Asia is rubbish,(Singapore excluded) it gives the impression to western expats that Asians are not proud of their country, given this craze of Thai's trying to look like farang's, perhaps they are not proud of being Thai. Why not???

If he/she is packing something into a bag and you say, I do not need this, they throw it away immediately. It is used then!

Charge 5 Baht per bag. Problem solved. Awareness starts at the wallet.

Doesn't even have to be 5 Baht. 2 Baht will stop people.

^ Won't stop me. I like bags.

The problem is people throwing them in the street after they've eaten their food.

It is called "littering".

This afternoon I bought 6 pastries. Each pastry went into it's own little plastic bag, only to be sealed with cello tape. Then all 6 pastries, each in their own (now sealed) plastic bag was placed into a larger plastic bag.

Amazing Thailand, indeed.

If he/she is packing something into a bag and you say, I do not need this, they throw it away immediately. It is used then!

LOL.

Too many times have I seen this, go to 7/11 to buy a pack of ciggies and they put em in a bag, I take out from bag and give it back and they put the "now used" bag in the bin !!!!!!

Or you could just start using new generation plastic bags that bio degrade in 1/10th of the time and training your staff to ask the customer if they really need that plastic bag.

We are consumers, we don't care and never will.

Asians cannot see rubbish, all you see right through Asia is rubbish,(Singapore excluded) it gives the impression to western expats that Asians are not proud of their country, given this craze of Thai's trying to look like farang's, perhaps they are not proud of being Thai. Why not???

Not sure where you have been going in Asia, but I have seen some of the cleanest countries here. Unfortunately Thailand is not on that list.

They can always double up as condoms if you're not chipolata sized

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Paying for bags is the way to go. You will only use them when you really have to.

Asians cannot see rubbish, all you see right through Asia is rubbish,(Singapore excluded) it gives the impression to western expats that Asians are not proud of their country, given this craze of Thai's trying to look like farang's, perhaps they are not proud of being Thai. Why not???

Not sure where you have been going in Asia, but I have seen some of the cleanest countries here. Unfortunately Thailand is not on that list.

Much of SE Asia is a disaster for rubbish, with Thailand being near the top of the list.

What makes the writer think it is only in BKK?

Same all over the country.

Very easy to say you dont want a plastic bag before they start to put things in a bag, in Thai "Mai sai tung krap" (or Ka if you are female)

I do it all the time, places I go regularly know me now and don't try to put things in plastic bags.

Give it a try and see how easy it is...Oh yes and smile.

Macro don't use bags.

7/11 are the worst offenders. .. buy 6 cans and they will give yiu 6 straws

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Doesn't even have to be 5 Baht. 2 Baht will stop people.

My mum told me some shops in Oz were charging 10 cents a plastic bag. It makes economic sense and might encourage people to use their own bags. Saw an elderly farang couple filling up their own bags at TOPS the other day. That's the only time I've seen that happen in 12 years here.

If I go around the corner to Family or 7/11, I always bring my used BigC bags with me, and they are happy to use them at the counter. On the other hand in case I forget the bags I have the privilege to take my stuff home in the shopping basket. The staff at Family knows I am living about 30 meters from the shop and I return the basket within at most 5 minutes. The BigC bags are good for at least two weeks of buying beer and things, they also serve as garbage bags or tho take plastic bottles and aluminum cans to the recycler.

Macro don't use bags.

7/11 are the worst offenders. .. buy 6 cans and they will give yiu 6 straws

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Laht Mai ow krup!

Mai Sai, should be obligitory. But then, if u actually care about the environment, you shouldn' drive a car..

Hiphop crassy at a high level.

good marketing plan for ice drinks sold on the street in plastic bags, no way to set it down easily, so drink it and get another soon after.

Ah! Yet again the old plastic bag thread, done to death umpteen times.

1. Make the retailers that don't already do it cut 0.0001% off their obscene profits by making it law that they must

use only bio-degradable bags in their stores, and fine them vast sums if they do not comply. Responsible

retailers like TOPS and VILLA already do this.

2. Get the BIB to enforce the already existing anti-litter laws, (good luck with that one).

No-one is going to achieve anything without enforcement of the law big time and we all know that is not likely to happen

anytime soon here.

Please stop telling all to charge for bags at shops, all that will achieve is an increase in their profits and why should I

or any other plastic bag responsible person have to pay for irresponsible rich retailers and lazy policing on litterbugs????

Please stop telling all to charge for bags at shops, all that will achieve is an increase in their profits and why should I

or any other plastic bag responsible person have to pay for irresponsible rich retailers and lazy policing on litterbugs????

Have a plastic bag tax and have the revenue directed to the environment ministry, problem solved. It all comes down to money, it is the only way to get a plastic addicted country like Thailand to change its habits.

Put it in Perspectives, Nessecities, and Luxuries.

Most people dont think about it, they buy a car to go to work, then go to work to pay off the car. !!!!!

bad habits in Thailand will never stop, I think It'll get even worse.

The ultimate irony - the wife bought a bag of food sized plastic bags at the market and they put them in a plastic bag.

As a somewhat sinister way to reduce the plastic bag usage, I suggest that all scooters are stripped of the wee hookey thing designed to hang your plastic bags on.

HK and SK have been charging for plastic bags for years now.

This problem is not exclusive to Thailand, it's a worldwide problem.

Plastic bags, plastic water/drink containers and disposable diapers are all part of the problem.

I certainly stop them from putting a bottle of water of a soda can in a plastic bag for immediate consumption, but living in a condo I definitely need the Friendship Market plastic grocery bags to put my trash in. How would I accumulate my own trash for disposal if you were successful in banning them?

Charge 5 Baht per bag. Problem solved. Awareness starts at the wallet.

5 baht!!

1 baht per bag will be enough to deter them here.