Samui, Surat Thani:- If nothing is done soon enough, the small island of Samui, seen as a paradise by foreign tourists, could turn into a heap of garbage soon, according to a briefing at an urgent meeting held Sunday.

During the meeting held by Surat Thani Governor Chatpong Chatphume, more than 250,000 tons of garbage has already piled up on the small island, regarded by many foreign tourists as a paradise, especially decades ago before the tourism industry there boomed.

The meeting at the Surat Thani provincial hall was also told that 150 tons more of garbage is made on the island each day.

Chatpong held an urgent meeting after he has received complaints from local people that garbage has become a serious problem for them as the remaining waste is causing bad smell and affecting their daily life.

The governor called representatives of agencies concerned to discuss possible solutions. The agencies included the Samui Municipality and the Surat Thani Natural Resources and Environment Office.

The governor was told that the constructions of four integrated solid waste management plants that can dispose garbage with sustainability have not been done yet, causing the garbage to accumulate for two years.

The meeting was told that the ever-growing pile of garbage could soon affect the tourism.

Samui Municipality Mayor Ramnetr Jaikwang said four landfill sites of the municipality had already been used up and its garbage incinerator has been out of order.

Ramnetr said the municipality has only one plot of land left for use as a new landfill but it will be used up in six months or no more than one year.

The meeting resolved to set up a panel to speed up the construction of the four integrated garbage plants.

Samaui is a beautiful island and with the increase in tourism garbage problems will inevitably result.

Recycle what can be recycled and dispose of the biodegradable garbage in the ocean.

So as far as I see it the issue is really how to transport the recyclable waste to the mainland to facilitate this process.

Decades have passed....why nothing has been done yet????

Will Samui Paradise turn into garbage heap?

Some people say that it already has, both figuratively and literally.

Samaui is a beautiful island and with the increase in tourism garbage problems will inevitably result.

Recycle what can be recycled and dispose of the biodegradable garbage in the ocean.

So as far as I see it the issue is really how to transport the recyclable waste to the mainland to facilitate this process.

Really insightful stuff there, thanks for sharing

Samui stopped being a paradise years ago. A a Mafia run shit hole where everything is overpriced.

Samaui is a beautiful island and with the increase in tourism garbage problems will inevitably result.

Recycle what can be recycled and dispose of the biodegradable garbage in the ocean.

So as far as I see it the issue is really how to transport the recyclable waste to the mainland to facilitate this process.

Really insightful stuff there, thanks for sharing

Samui stopped being a paradise years ago. A a Mafia run shit hole where everything is overpriced.

Your veiled condescension does not go unnoticed, but is to be expected.

However I appreciate your viewpoint and am glad you are able to offer it.

I for one love Samui and in fact courted my lovely wife there at the beginning of our relationship.

I stand by my statement that if the island is able to recycle garbage it will solve a lot of their problems.

Take care my friend..

I suggest the lawmakers of Koh Samui make a field trip to the Maldives, not telling them in advance that this island will be their destination:

I suggest the lawmakers are made to live next door to the dumping area for a month as part of an attitude adjustment, after all might as well put martial law and detentions to good use.

I think its now over developed and overpriced they have never considered putting any thing back as usual , Samui is a dump

".....seen as a paradise by foreign tourists...."

what the writer meant was:

"seen as a paradise by foreign tourists who've never visited a tropical island before and have no idea how far from tropical paradise so-called 'development' has brought it...."

We stopped going to Samui about 6-7 years ago in no small part do to the garbage everywhere.

Thais only live for the moment. One day its all gone. You have to reinvest to sustain tourism. But. T.I.T.

I laughed when I visited Samui 8 years ago.

A hilly island with no proper storm drainage. The people there expect rainwater to just find its way to the sea? One main drain I saw ended abruptly before meeting the beach. Why? Beach properties are to valuable to have a storm drain running through it and polluting it.

That's why Samui floods.

Must be the news from last century.
I thought Samui was a garbage heap since decades already.

Four waste management plants have nit been done yet and Incinerator not working. And everything standstill for how long? Two years? Keep piling it up as long as the influential people keep lining their pockets.

Same problem on a national park Samed island

Where are the geniuses who scoffed when I called Thailand a Third World Country?

And told me my opinion about "beaches near highly developed areas were polluted" was "rubbish"?

5555+

they can always just have garbage burning days, thainess...

could turn into a heap of garbage soon

Could ?....thought it was already

get some quotes for an repairs to the incinerator otherwise setup a receycling plant and call singapore and ask how much its gonna cost for them to send a barge, their incinerators are always working. Returning ash is going to take up a hell of a let of space, and this suggesting is totally corruption perfect, sure beats the obvious fixes.

It already is has has been for years. Just look at the foreigners and the Thais it attracts. The low of human kind.

Many places in Thailand are disgusting dirty. Like Jomtien Beach and surrounding soi's and streets... garbage, garbage everywhere. ... + garbage in the sea and on the beach. In the rainy season so much garbage from Bangkok drifts to Jomtien Beach, tourist swimming between plastic bags.

And in the weekend so many Thais leave their garbage on the beach after enjoying eating and swimming....

Nearly no garbage bins, no police walking around to fine anybody.

Broken sidewalks, broken benches (already 6 years... nothing ever has been repaired, replaced!)

Here just a few of the 50 pics I took of dirty places at Jomtien Beach and surrounding roads

We where in 10 years ago with a govt. supported project.
We brought a 400 horse power grinder and our aeration facility onto Samui and we did a good batch of compost.
We received organic waste form Tesco and some hotels.
We show how to reduce 60% of the total waste generating on Samui on a eye blink.
Additionally it would made the incinerator working properly by withdrawing the wet and heavy fraction out of the waste stream.
Our supporter in this time is a great guy.
Unfortunately he got not the support which he needed to implement a sustainable waste management system on Samui.
So again nothing happened and the problem is piled up as the news paper article stated.
I am here in Thailand producing a high efficient composting system, unfortunately not yet for the Thai market.
It is very sad to see how our host is destroying this beautiful country for the sake of money.
I feel a high responsibility with my knowledge being here in this country and have to watch how nature is destroyed.
But I am running against walls and I have no more power to continue.
From where this article comes from?

It's not a problem that's exclusive to Samui. It's a national crisis, and the majority of Thais very simply don't care how it it affects themselves or others; unless it hits their pocket books and wallets. Then they expect someone else to foot the bill and do the dirty work.

I used to stay there a few months every year for some 20 Years,....Stopped going to Samui , 6-7 Years ago...when I did not feel that Paradise feeling anymore....Garbage had a lot to do with it, but the locals to...more violence, brake ins...thefts,..roads were very dangerous...one dead a day.....(unofficially)...locals became unfriendly and treated everybody like a fresh tourist ready to be squeezed out of his last bath....some of my good friends that lived there left to...We all had some wonderful times there,...but sadly this is over....The new tourists see it as a paradise, Unaware of the real beauty lost...!

I used to know 7 beaches and bays around the Island were you could swim naked, there was rarely somebody around....They are all over build now...The promoters and local Mafia had made huge fortunes building houses and resorts on the most beautiful beaches.....Progress ???...Greed...!!!

Totally agree,i was shocked a few years back when my wife and i and some of her cousins were clearing land,out in the country,some friends turned up with food,in those sytrofoam boxes,when finished one lady collected it all up and just threw it in some bushes,i am very strict about at our house and at my wife's shop but it seems they just cannot stop themselves from throwing it on the ground,i know the argument about how before things were wrapped in banana leaves,but i don't think that really applies today,it's just does not seem an issue for Thai people,and will not be even when the whole country is covered in a layer of garbage a metre high,it is one of the things i really dislike about Thailand and the Thai's attitude about it.

I was waiting in my jeep one day for the boat to Koh Samui at DonSak,...and a guy was eating some food out of plastic bags Thai Style... he stood right in front of my jeep next to a garbage can and he true his garbage right in the sea.....there is a lot of education to be don here.....!!

It's all been done to death on these pages for years and during that time little has changed. One of the biggest problems in Thailand is the lack of rubbish collection in villages and the lack of education about the environment in schools. Villagers burn or dump their rubbish and the kids grow up thinking it's the normal thing to do.

Despite the 'Dear Leaders' pledges to cleanse the country of all bad things and wrong doing i doubt he will be too worried about the fact that the whole country is fast becoming the rubbish dump of Asia !

Totally agree,i was shocked a few years back when my wife and i and some of her cousins were clearing land,out in the country,some friends turned up with food,in those sytrofoam boxes,when finished one lady collected it all up and just threw it in some bushes,i am very strict about at our house and at my wife's shop but it seems they just cannot stop themselves from throwing it on the ground,i know the argument about how before things were wrapped in banana leaves,but i don't think that really applies today,it's just does not seem an issue for Thai people,and will not be even when the whole country is covered in a layer of garbage a metre high,it is one of the things i really dislike about Thailand and the Thai's attitude about it.

I have never understood Thailand's obsession with Styrofoam and plastic bags. I'd ban them both if it were up to me; or perhaps even better, make them pay a plastic pollution tax at the distributor and consumer level. If Mama Noodles wants to sell their rubbish in Styrofoam, or if CP want's to sell all their crap in plastic containers... Then they have to pay for that at the production level without an increase price of the product that is passed along to the consumer. If the consumer wants to buy the rubbish and crap, then they have to pay another tax at the counter... Things would change very quickly.

A tragic example of how human greed is destroying the planet. How did we become mere spectators at our own funeral?