Fly Tipping in Thailand

[dcsw53]

The recent political troubles have been a very convenient excuse for TAT to point at falling tourist numbers. Sure warnings from governments not to come here have had an affect, but the downward trend has other contributors. One I believe needs more attention is fly tipping.

I have met many tourists over the last year who were shocked at the reality of picturesque Thailand. We have great sunsets, but turn the camera 180* and there are piles of illegally dumped rubbish blotting the landscape. Tourists particularly from the cleaner countries of Europe, especially Switzerland, Sweden and Austria cannot believe how much junk is dumped by the roadside in semi rural places, especially near otherwise scenic hotels. If the sight is not bad enough they tell you to open the window to enjoy the extra aromatic effect.

Can we change the course of history and clean up. Realistic fines for fly tipping, scrapping charging for legal disposal, recycling ( yes this concept will need explaining ) and installing a pride in our environment is needed to stop Thailand becoming of a total cess pit.

But then that would need a government who was interested, so what hope is there ?

[h90]

I always say the dirt you can see isn't the dangerous one.....

Complete dead corals and the Thais wonder why the snorkeler and divers don't come anymore

Criminality is getting worse. Service is going down. Prices up.....

[wym]

never heard that term before

tourism is not important enough, problem will only be addressed when Thais care about it

and then it will take a lot of money and a long time to solve, if ever

[sotsira]

It would help if there were legalised dumping sites set up by the local authorities

where the population would know where to dump/recycle their waste.

But you would need a pro active government for this to work not a corrupt one that

seems to always be the case in Thailand.

[Mooner]

Waste management problems are a epidemic in Thailand.

Its like it is invisible to Thai people. I detest it. Lets hope the next generation can make a difference.

[Tywais]

never heard that term before

Neither had I. So for others who are not familiar with the term, though the context of the OP sort of identifies it.

Fly-tipping, fly dumping,or illegal dumping refers to dumping waste illegally instead of in an authorized rubbish dump. It is the illegal deposit of any waste onto land; waste dumped or tipped on a site with no license to accept waste.

Wiki

[CharlieH]

Moan and regulate all you like, what's needed is a Police force to actually enforce the laws not just this but many others too and not be so, shall we say "selective" in there work.

[Thongkorn]

Moan and regulate all you like, what's needed is a Police force to actually enforce the laws not just this but many others too and not be so, shall we say "selective" in there work.

Must be talking about the good old UK

[seajae]

blew me away when I saw a car pull up at the pier where my wife works, man got out with a big bag of household rubbish and tossed it in the water, went back to the car and got out a fishing rod and started fishing on the other side , how do you make these people see common sense. I actually tried to throw some soft plastics along the river bank but continually got snagged in crap & junk, people just throw everything wherever they want and have no regard for their country but how do you make them wake up and take pride in it, this is the problem.

[wym]

No different in our home countries, just that cultural transformation is in the past for us, in the future for Thailand. When I used to live in Greece in my teens, it was completely acceptable to my peers to toss rubbish out the window and use dynamite for fishing. Apparently things are different there now too.

Same propaganda techniques as selling fizzy sugar water, combined with objective consistent enforcement via better rule of law than what now exists.

Requires an upswelling of public awareness about these issues being important, almost like a spiritual awakening.

Foreigners complaining about it won't even register in the collective conscience.

[namdocmai]

No different in our home countries, just that cultural transformation is in the past for us, in the future for Thailand. When I used to live in Greece in my teens, it was completely acceptable to my peers to toss rubbish out the window and use dynamite for fishing. Apparently things are different there now too.

Same propaganda techniques as selling fizzy sugar water, combined with objective consistent enforcement via better rule of law than what now exists.

Requires an upswelling of public awareness about these issues being important, almost like a spiritual awakening.

Foreigners complaining about it won't even register in the collective conscience.

Throw a full binbag anywhere in north Europe and you will get a fine of a few hundred euro.

If you own land and some idiot throws garbage on it, the government will come to clean and you get the bill (which is huge) for that job.

So you want the Thai to clean that garbage? Okay, they will put it on fire for you, no ploblem sir.

[kannot]

Thais are filthy ( in general YES), they regularly throw rubbish anywhere they can or discreetly put it in any sort of hole they can find, its all ok as long as no one sees you do it.

The young kids do the same as the parents, seen them at Tesco eat something and down on the floor it goes

I live in the country, its a dump, workers bring their plastic bags full of food everyday and just leave them behind when they have finished.

They dont care at all.

[wym]

I've never seen anyone trying to hide it, out in the villages just dump the rubbish out in their own back yard, every house looks like a rubbish tip.

Just not important to them, that's the way it is, like I said our own cultures were the same not too many decades/centuries ago.

Time be time. . .

[mmh8]

incredible, nice plot next to the neighbour, empty land but for a few nice trees. neighbor starts dumping rubble in plot as they do extension and new build. then neighbor chops down trees - it was affecting the light- or perhaps- it was dangerous for the house-, then a mango tree gets chopped in half, yeah through the heart of it. on occasion I saw bin bags and other crap emptied out of back of other soi residents trucks into the once nice plot of land, other close neighbouras put domestic waste on it. arsoles

a lot of crap got put in there. some dangerous some smelly and possibly dangerous. even the rats left the plot and the snakes all migrated to nicer places.

I was wishing bad things to happen to the tree killer and original despoiler of the land such as trees falling on head, I tried not to but the treee killing got on my nerves and the land did not even belong to them. not to me either. anyway, I began to feel anger and contempt towards them and all assoicated with pollution, the resients of that soi had children, the stuff they put on the plot was dangerous

. Well all of a sudden a 7 story block of flats appeared. what a mess. the plot next odor with a nice house was occupied by burmians and cambodians while one block was built I left and rented elsewhere. they have started on the second and the traffic will be bad, drug abusers and ealers will move into the cheap 5 k or less per month flats. it looms over a couple of the worst offenders.

maybe there is something in this karma thing after all. I sure as hell don't plan on being recycled though once is enough for me, give others a chance I say, besides weas brought up catholic

curse these people for doing it in their own back yard, in their own neighbourhood and not even thinking about how unhealthy it was.

[trainman34014]

A lot of the Rural villages in Thailand get no rubbish collections whatsoever so they burn or throw their rubbish in the countryside to get rid of it. A village near mine was told last year they could have a weekly bin collection service if they paid just 50 Baht per week per household but they turned it down because they wanted it for free. I tried to make the leader of the village understand that he should advise them to accept the offer for the good of the entire village and the health of its people. After all; the majority of them have never paid one penny in tax apart from VAT on shop purchases, so why should they expect a completely free service ?

The answer i got was ''I got my servant to burn every night so i not worried''. With this attitude from so called 'head man' things are unlikely to change for the better any time soon.

[namdocmai]

I live in a nice new moobaan but also here the Thai throw everything on the streets. They know the cleaners will sweep next day so who cares. To lazy to put it in the binhouse and if they do that the soidogs will come to get it out at night. They won't close the outerdoor of the binhouse and also the garbage collectors refuse to close that door again.

There almost are no Thai at all with good manners. Rich or poor they all do things the most easy way. To lazy to use blinkers, riding against traffic, throwing thrash everywhere, not wearing lights on their bikes, not paying the fee for the moobaan developer, parking the car where they like, very selfish.

[LennyW]

Thailand has a very busy recycling business, metal, glass, aluminium, plastic, cardboard etc. and is very profitable for some people from the street trash pickers to the owners of the recycling centres.

If only there was a recycle value on plastic bags and styrofoam food containers - Thailand would be spotless overnight!