Thais and the culture of just dumping rubbish with no regards for others.

[djayz]

My father in law 'the ghoul',tosses rubbish out onto the lovely paved area,outside his room,or in the garden,i have talked to my wife but what can she say,i just sigh and realise he is an uneduecated peasant that does not mind living in filth,of course i clean up,but i console myself with the fact the hopefully he will soon be dead.

He might be an uneducated peasant, but that doesn't mean he can't learn new things (tricks)...

[Xircal]

Seems to me most things described here there are rules and laws against etc, whats is sadly lacking, is the Police and other Officials actually enforcing them, ie: doing there damn job properly !

Its only when the learn there are consequences to actions will there be a difference,

The main problem is their upbringing. If they've grown up in some godforsaken village where the houses comprise of a few sheets of corrugated iron nailed to a wooden frame and where there's no such thing as a weekly garbage truck doing the rounds to collect the bags, then of course they don't have any concept of tidiness.

Walk around any village in Isaan or nearby provinces and you'll find plastic bottles and the remnants of old cartons strew at the sides of the roads and all manner of junk just lying around.

And when the girls from these villages move to somewhere like Phuket to work as bar girls, they bring their habits with them. I read on news media every day about beaches strewn with litter, but how do you change people's habits when nobody has ever taught them to think of the environment before throwing litter on the ground?

[fey]

one thing you can do is take your stuff out of the bag at 7-11 and leave it on the counter for the next person.

every little thing requires a bag even just buying a coke the thais want it in a bag. dont forget a straw or two also with everthing. good customer service duh! enough to make you want to vomit and run for your life.

why do they put every little thing in a bag anywhere you go. do they have brains?

7-11 is a huge polluter with the bag issue. i read that the small plastic baggies they insist on could stretch to the moon after just a few weeks.

cant see the bag refusal or biodegradable thing catching on with the thais at all. seems like a western concept.

Edited March 3, 2015 by fey

[Thai at Heart]

Its not the governments fault. Its just dumb brainless Thais doing their thing ijna dumb and brainless way.

[kannot]

Thais have no clue about saving the envornment

Think green is not known in Thialand

They prefer to use it until it is gone then wonder where it all went

Kind of like the tourism industry

And the same approach to fishing, take every fish no matter how small, I have big fish in my lake 18 inches size tilipia, when new staff come they go crazy catching everything i always tell them to throw small ones back.........they just dont get it, it has over 4000 fish

[plachon]

education, or lack of it, I see people throwing rubbish out of car windows all the time, kids on scooters throwing icecoffee containers and bag onto side of road, ??????

it is lack of education, it is not a matter that thai society and media talk about.

When driving with my GF, she often throws the garbage that is in a plastic bag out of the window. I get angry and try to educate her to keep it till we come home and drop it in the bin.

Her response is always you stupid farlang, this is thailand and i do what i want.

Like the rubbish, why do you not just dump her? If she doesn't listen to your opinion over something as simple as that, then I'd suggest she's not a keeper.

Over 20 years ago, when I first started going out with my wife, I took her on a trip to Kanchanaburi. We hired a moped and whilst driving along a country road with her on the back, I noticed out my peripheral vision her sling an empty plastic water bottle in plastic bag into the ditch at the side of the road. Without saying anything, I turned around and drove back slowly, looking for the bag. When I spotted it, I stopped, pointed to it and said. ". That's really ugly there. Go and pick it up, or you are walking home." She didn't hesitate, as she knew it was a long way back to the town. So she carried it for miles until I found a bin she could dispose of it in. Later, I explained why I hate people just dropping litter and we talked rationally about the problem of litter in Thailand. I wouldn't really have made her walk, but you can bet we wouldn't have been together for much longer after that, if she had refused to pick it up or called me "stupid farang, this is Thailand".

Basically, your GF looks upon you like the litter she throws out the window. Your call, but why bother getting angry, when your "education" strategy has clearly failed? Disposibility can work several ways......

[Linno]

In Australia the highways were littered with rubbish until fines were applied. Took a few years and appealing to national pride to change the situation. Also in Thailand I can't find anyone that can tell me where the dump actually is. Must have one in Phimai as dump trucks collect x2 per week....but not from the local villages.

[kannot]

Huh its simple, they dont give s hite , only two things they think about, one cant be mentioned and the other is so stupid its not worth mentioning yet the money floods into these places

[burgerking]

The truth is they just don't care. It's that simple.

[green job]

education, or lack of it, I see people throwing rubbish out of car windows all the time, kids on scooters throwing icecoffee containers and bag onto side of road, ??????

same as in Europe,,,,Germany is bad for that as well. The LKW drivers ( lorry drivers ) always empty the rubish from their cabs,on exits from the autobahn (corners)

as do many car drivers.This happens mainly at night.

People all over the world dump rubbish ( if there is no one to police it ) This has fxxx all to do with thai culture,

[Tonto21]

It's a little condisending to think this is a Thai problem.....OP, your topic ; 'Replying to Thais and the culture of just dumping rubbish with no regards for others'

You say its Thai culture...... Do you really think it is Thai culture to dump rubbish?

It is a human thing and every country has been though this, people just 'dumping there rubbish' where ever.

Education, or lack of it...... Not culture is the problem.

[bobonzo]

you should see what Saudi looks like if you think Thailand is bad

[tartempion]

Well at least my 4.5 little one goes to school and they have many trash bins and kids dispose of their rubbish in the bins (most of the time) it's a good start.

[bwpage3]

This is one of the wonderful joys of living in Thailand. Along with police scam checkpoints, piss-poor drivers, visa-runs, language problems, lack of education, you name it. In one word, ignorance.

[stoneyboy]

It's a little condisending to think this is a Thai problem.....OP, your topic ; 'Replying to Thais and the culture of just dumping rubbish with no regards for others'

You say its Thai culture...... Do you really think it is Thai culture to dump rubbish?

It is a human thing and every country has been though this, people just 'dumping there rubbish' where ever.

Education, or lack of it...... Not culture is the problem.

Correct,thank heavens his Lord ship introduced the 1 day a month no plastic bag policy.

The results are simply astounding.

[attrayant]

Lack of education...

Nothing to do with that.I am educated and havent got a clue where to dump rubbish. The government need to do something about it.

It's a combination of the two. Authorities don't provide waste disposal facilities, which means people don't learn to use them.

In the two schools that I've worked in, neither had trash cans in the classrooms. Also none in the teacher's office. I brought my own from home. The nearest cans are outside in the courtyard and nobody wants to walk that far just to throw away a candy wrapper. Multiply one candy wrapper by 50 students and the mess at the end of the day in each room is staggering.

So the students learn to hide their trash in the desks, behind the bookshelf, under the pc monitor stands and anywhere else they can find. Why not get them into the habit of using trash cans while they're young?

[fey]

This is one of the reasons why "Mai Phen Rai" does not work.

It's just ignoring problems, but eventually it comes back to haunt you. So you get bottled up emotions that result in explosive outbursts or stuff like trash which hurts the country in bigger ways (like trashed beaches and lack of tourism).

[seajae]

wife's office is at the local harbour, its unreal to watch the thais ride their bikes onto the pier, get off and take the bags of rubbish they brought with them to the inside of the pier(shallow side) and throw it all into the water then go over to the other side and start to fish, go figure.

[green job]

This is one of the wonderful joys of living in Thailand. Along with police scam checkpoints, piss-poor drivers, visa-runs, language problems, lack of education, you name it. In one word, ignorance.

You know what to do then,dont you?