Why do locals burn trash?

[answermeplease]

On many occasions I've noticed the locals burn trash in the fields. Why?

It disgusts and perplexes me at the same time.

[CharlieH]

MOVED

[neverdie]

Easy ?

Smells Good?

Cheap?

[pgrahmm]

Always have and always will....has been practical for them for centuries including getting the fields ready for tilling and replanting....also cremation is an honored way to treat the departed.....

Now we've got more complex chemicals thrown into the mix with bags and packaging.....but the disposal method remains the same...

Time tested and takes care of the immediate need....

[answermeplease]

They drag the trash into the bushes (their property?) and then burn it. The trash is still there, exept charred and blackened. What did they dispose of exactly?

Also, aren't there sanitation services (green trucks) driving around to collect trash?

I think this is a separate issue from cremation/tilling/replanting.

Always have and always will....has been practical for them for centuries including getting the fields ready for tilling and replanting....also cremation is an honored way to treat the departed.....

Now we've got more complex chemicals thrown into the mix with bags and packaging.....but the disposal method remains the same...

Time tested and takes care of the immediate need....

Edited March 18, 2015 by answermeplease

[96tehtarp]

"Why do locals burn trash?"

It's due to a lack of education. Most Thais don't know the value of compost.

[cooked]

In many places there is NO service available for garbage disposal. We can sell plastic, ฿1.0/Kg, glass, metal, paper and carton, but have to keep it here until the guy comes to collect. I know of two Farangs that also burn plastic without shame. We bundle our stuff into garbage bags and take it to town once a week, plenty of bins that get emptied on Tuesdays that are always half empty. Now doing this for three families. If you don't have a car or are to lazy to sell your stuff, you burn it.

Edited March 18, 2015 by Jai Dee
quoted removed post

[Jai Dee]

One incoherent reply and one flame post have been removed from this thread.

[pgrahmm]

One incoherent reply and one flame post have been removed from this thread.

A flame post about burning....how ironic....

[answermeplease]

Seems like a transportation/service issue then. I guess burning condenses the trash, even though it doesn't get rid of it entirely.

In many places there is NO service available for garbage disposal. We can sell plastic, ฿1.0/Kg, glass, metal, paper and carton, but have to keep it here until the guy comes to collect. I know of two Farangs that also burn plastic without shame. We bundle our stuff into garbage bags and take it to town once a week, plenty of bins that get emptied on Tuesdays that are always half empty. Now doing this for three families. If you don't have a car or are to lazy to sell your stuff, you burn it.

[natas]

"Why do locals burn trash?"

It's due to a lack of education. Most Thais don't know the value of compost.

Can't really compost metal, plastic.. otherwise agree. .

[answermeplease]

Maybe I'm just new, but it appears to me that Thais are way more into reusing and recycling than the West is. I therefore would guess that they know how to value compost.

"Why do locals burn trash?"

It's due to a lack of education. Most Thais don't know the value of compost.

Can't really compost metal, plastic.. otherwise agree. .

[marko kok prong]

Asked my sister in law once,"give good feel',she replied,i presumed she was on the same subject as me,one can never be 100% sure though.

[answermeplease]

My favorite answer...

Asked my sister in law once,"give good feel',she replied,i presumed she was on the same subject as me,one can never be 100% sure though.

[DGS1244]

It is cheaper than having to pay someone to take it away. Do you know of any 'free' legal rubbish tips?

[monkeycountry]

Because they are not very smart, and don't care about the nuissance and/or health of others or the environment in general.

[winstonc]

in a nutshell because they are lazy..no excuses..including the farangs.....when our rubbish was collected in ubon it was/is 20baht a month so dont come back with the affordability card..that wont wash...like most of the locals there lol...

[NE1]

It's not cos they are lazy , it is cos there are no collections or rubbish tips , so it gets burnt .

Like everything else here , been doing it for ever , so why change .

[White Christmas13]

It is cheaper than having to pay someone to take it away. Do you know of any 'free' legal rubbish tips?

Yes along any road you like

[monkeycountry]

Actually I recall an article many years ago where a Thai newspaper had asked someone burning rubbish, and his reply was something like: If the government wants us not to burn rubbish, they will have to collect it for free (as opposed to the appx. 20 baht/month it usually costs), further he claimed the sky was big so it could take it (the smoke).

So there you have the answer, from a local rubbish burner.

[Xonax]

Lack of education.

Lack of service.

Lack of penalties.

[Fookhaht]

It's not cos they are lazy , it is cos there are no collections or rubbish tips , so it gets burnt .

Like everything else here , been doing it for ever , so why change .

We have village–supplied rubbish bins distributed to each house. The neighbors still continue to burn the trash next to the rubbish bins.

Too lazy to wheel the bins down to the end of the soi for emptying by the local dump truck – about 30m.

[finnomick]

About 98% of the posts so far are wrong. The towns have rubbish collection, there's even the blue plastic barrels to put it in but these are supposed to be for households to use not for people from out of town to use. Out in the villages there is no such thing as a rubbish collection. People sell what can be recycled then burn the rest. As a further point, the local rubbish tip where all the green lorries empty their contents burn at night too. So where does the education start ? Government, local council ? Or just blame the people who don't have any rubbish collection ?

[Lee4Life]

In many places there is NO service available for garbage disposal. We can sell plastic, ฿1.0/Kg, glass, metal, paper and carton, but have to keep it here until the guy comes to collect. I know of two Farangs that also burn plastic without shame. We bundle our stuff into garbage bags and take it to town once a week, plenty of bins that get emptied on Tuesdays that are always half empty. Now doing this for three families. If you don't have a car or are to lazy to sell your stuff, you burn it.

While you may be correct about many places not having garbage service, they do have it in our village and also have garbage bins that the government placed at intervals along the streets. The locals still burn garbage though, and often we have to run around the house closing windows to keep the plastic and rubber burning fumes from coming in the house. One of my neighbors burns rubber inside of his cow shed at night, I believe to ward off mosquitos, another neighbor burns different kinds of garbage in her orchard every morning...I think to ward off bugs from her trees.

Whenever there is a rain following a dry spell, the water coming off the roof of our house is black.

[Wat dee]

I do it to get rid of it.

[mizmen]

Dear All,

Please understand that due to one reason or another, locals will and are entitled to (their country!..lol...), burn their trash. This is, unfortunately, inevitable at present times...

The question for which an answer should have been pursued with this thread - is....

"Why do they burn their trash when the wind is blowing towards their neighbours?"

Anything else..., I can understand..., I can forgive..., but THIS... is really a disgusting behaviour because it shows lack of respect for others...

Sorry to say...

PS. I never post anything in this forum normally... I am just a reader... But having read the title of this one was enough to convince me to register...

[96tehtarp]

"Why do locals burn trash?"

It's due to a lack of education. Most Thais don't know the value of compost.

Can't really compost metal, plastic.. otherwise agree. .

I live in a village and have for a long time. We are on a river. Before we got streetlights and garbage collection most people threw their trash in the river and sent it to float downstream to Bangkok. Just before dusk it was quite a sight watching all the rubbish from a village of 100k people float downstream.

It's true plastic and metal can't be recycled. Most people sort out their rubbish in piles in the front yard and sell it about once a month. It is unsightly yet practical.

I'd really wish we could have a community composting program, perhaps with green bins, where we could send all the organic waste to be composted together with the leftover rice stalks and sugar cane stalks to be mulched and also composted. The status quo is to burn the rice and sugar cane fields and this is making places in the north like Chiang Mai unlivable with smog.

The compost could be redistributed free for for all the rural people's vegetable gardens. This program would not cost much. I won't waste my breath trying to tell them how things could be done.

[bangon04]

It is cheaper than having to pay someone to take it away. Do you know of any 'free' legal rubbish tips?

Yes along any road you like

and the lucky few live next to a canal...

[marko kok prong]

My favorite answer...

Asked my sister in law once,"give good feel',she replied,i presumed she was on the same subject as me,one can never be 100% sure though.

Well,she offered to take me ,ahem,"round the back of the house " to show me ,i declined the offer,politely,telling her even though i was a falang,i had actually seen fire before,which she countered with a puzzled look,and we all continued drinking our dry martini's.

[NE1]

Where we are , the biggest problem this time of year is the burning of the sugar cane stubble , every day it is like black snow falling .

That shit gets into your house on the breath of the wind.