Farang man wins praises for collecting litter

[JDGRUEN]

Here in mid-south Thailand and the islands around... there is an organization called Trash Heroes... volunteer member are made up of Farang and Thai. Here in Ao Nang - our Trash Heroes group has been meeting every Sunday for about two months or so. We has succeeding in getting 20 or so people out each even and sometimes a lot of Thai from a factory or hotel. The group has many commercial sponsors that provide snacks and drinks for the volunteers.

The Thai Park Service provides a place to stow the trash before going to a landfill ...

Today at Nopparat Thara National Park in Ao Nang - Trash Heroes was joined by several more groups plus at least 100 Thais from various hotels in the area to celebrate Earth Day. There was a lot of fun and games - but also a long sweep of the beach area to pick up the litter .

This Spring - Trash Heroes has picked up many hundreds of Kilograms of trash and disposed of it.

The best part - Thai Families join in - get up from picnicking and help us and so do the Farang Tourists.

[petercool]

A flame post removed

[JDGRUEN]

Thais usually don't litter half as much as Farangs do, and the Thai garbage collection system is far better than in many Farang cities.

If only Farangs could behave in Thailand like they would at home.

April 20 was the day after Songkran Finale when the beach area was completely overcrowded and many of the bins were placed on the pick ups, remember?

Special situation.

It's a shame that this bashing goes on here.

Total nonsense, as usual.You Thai apologists just dont know when to stop.

I have been all over Thailand - nearly every city large or small - in Isaan - about 18 places in all ... have been in several places in Bkk., and here in Krabi Province ... The Thai trash collection system is a hodge podge when it is not a train wreck waiting to happen. There is no evidence of a competent, consistent and thorough trash collection system across the nation.

Here on the Nopparat Thara Beach and Park most of the picnickers are Thai families and they and not in the slightest mindful of the problem... The many Farang tourists are much more inclined to not throw away their trash... But as an example of the problem--at the Long Tailed Boat loading areas - there is not one trash bin ... so the tourists toss trash before boarding the boats... These tourists are Farang and Asian - Chinese countries, Japan and Korea mostly.

[Aussieroaming]

Good on him, but what a mess it was on the weekend. For those that think this is a Thai phenomenon though, you are wrong unfortunately. Australians are no better in regards to littering, but the local councils just spend more ratepayers money cleaning up the rubbish.

[balo]

Here in mid-south Thailand and the islands around... there is an organization called Trash Heroes... volunteer member are made up of Farang and Thai. Here in Ao Nang - our Trash Heroes group has been meeting every Sunday for about two months or so. We has succeeding in getting 20 or so people out each even and sometimes a lot of Thai from a factory or hotel. The group has many commercial sponsors that provide snacks and drinks for the volunteers.

The Thai Park Service provides a place to stow the trash before going to a landfill ...

Today at Nopparat Thara National Park in Ao Nang - Trash Heroes was joined by several more groups plus at least 100 Thais from various hotels in the area to celebrate Earth Day. There was a lot of fun and games - but also a long sweep of the beach area to pick up the litter .

This Spring - Trash Heroes has picked up many hundreds of Kilograms of trash and disposed of it.

The best part - Thai Families join in - get up from picnicking and help us and so do the Farang Tourists.

Can we start a branch of Trash Heroes in Pattaya/Jomtien ? I will volunteer if you can find someone to organize it.

[Mr Somtam]

There... Are... No... Bins... Anywhere...

[nontabury]

This is a fantastic act done by a foreigner.

It brings in to light some important points.

• Something good is appreciated by Thais.
• The same situation hyper activates the Thai bashers who do nothing but spend their time casting insulting and racist remarks and STILL living in the same country, with the same people and some even married/having families with it's filthy people - (as someone seems to consider Thai people as).

​Would these attitudes ever endear such aliens to the locals?

Would not the gap keep widening?

Where could the problem be?

Isn't it oblivious, although impossible to admit?

So we can take it that you personally volunteer to give up some of your energy and spare time, to keep Thailand clean. Well done sir.

[joepattaya1961]

Everybody, even Thai 'like' the Farang's actions until some hiso Thais will have the feeling of losing face; the farang will be disposed soon.

[rotorbreeze]

I have seen several times a farang doing the same in Cha am, but not on the beach ; he picked up much garbage in plastic bags !

What is solution in arresting a Foreigner whom dumps his garbage on road side...I see it this fat fellow does nothing all day then he drives his bike and flings his garbage in bushes..I see it and said to him..pick up your garbage..not a place to dump it you idiot! Please help me in legal matter that we can arrest this idiot, a city law officer would be nice to have small CCTV to monitor the area... put a heavy fine on this fellow...I know him to be a Calgary Canada...I represent Canada and hate to see this go on...would be completely different read in the Thai Visa...Farang man get jail time and has to clean up beaches for littering" I can be reached on email..

Edited April 22, 2015 by petercool
edited type size

[phiber]

For me, it's very funny to see good thai people littering everywhere but giving problems to farangs when they do the same. Makes sense, in a way.

Maybe I'm too critical of Thai people since Im from a european country where street-cleanliness standards are much higher.

[Tomtomtom69]

I sincerely hope no one makes a post mocking the no work permit situation because it's real and no matter the good intent can result in problems for the person(s) involved.

A work permit is needed for anything that can be classed as work and all it takes is one person to complain for a reason best know to them but if a foreigner is involved ... ! I'm not saying the authorities in the area concerned would be heavy handed depending on the circumstances but i am suggesting it's not a chance worth taking.

Sad it can come down to this.

All the sad people on this forum ever do is ridicule their own people and talk about work permits all day. Haven't you sad people got anything better to do? How about complaining about all the Cambodian beggars who don't have work permits, while you're at it? This guy did a good thing, but I don't see why it should become a news story just because he's white. White people have been coming to Pattaya for over 40 years...some of them pick up garbage. So what. Next time I'm back home if I see a Thai person picking up garbage on the beach I'm also going to post it on Facebook so it gets picked up as a news story we can all post questions on the local forum like: "where's this Asian person's work permit?" "how embarrassing that us real Aussies can't even clean up our own trash, but some Asian person has to pick it up for us".

[inwardglee]

I am one of the farangs picking up garbage here in Jomtien beach ...

I am unhappy about the garbage problem of this county, which had been like an innocent, lovely beauty some decades ago, and is now maltreated by a misdirected, "modern" development. It hurts to see it.

But the garbage problem is so a huge like the task of cleaning out the Augean stable. Collecting some garbage looks like fighting against windmills.

Yes, we can do a silent protest like collecting garbage, or going to the market with shopping bags. Yet the locals are sensitive to criticism from "aliens", it is not appreciated.

The green debate about the problem should come from within the society. Only with a nationwide effort the problem could be tackled. The first step would be creating awareness of the problem, and this could be done easily by a mere fingersnip of the significant people in the county. Only, WHO could change THEIR awareness?

[Aforek]

I have seen several times a farang doing the same in Cha am, but not on the beach ; he picked up much garbage in plastic bags !

What is solution in arresting a Foreigner whom dumps his garbage on road side...I see it this fat fellow does nothing all day then he drives his bike and flings his garbage in bushes..I see it and said to him..pick up your garbage..not a place to dump it you idiot! Please help me in legal matter that we can arrest this idiot, a city law officer would be nice to have small CCTV to monitor the area... put a heavy fine on this fellow...I know him to be a Calgary Canada...I represent Canada and hate to see this go on...would be completely different read in the Thai Visa...Farang man get jail time and has to clean up beaches for littering" I can be reached on email..

Really ? we speak of the same guy ? I saw many plastic bags full of garbage , that he put along the road , the day after they were not here ( and the guy I speak of was not fat ) . He was picking up the garbage from the ground with a long stick and put them in the bag

[BigC]

He not got arrested for working without a work permit? That's quite amazing. Great guy, he is a perfect sample for his host country and it's people who don't give a shti.

I herd he lost his wallet and has been up to his neck in rubbish since

Only joking he do good job. I do hope he gets lucky and stumbles across aomethjnf of value

[louse1953]

I was in ko tao for a month swimming in garbage for a month. a lot of fishing lines. cmon thais. lets get this garbage thing addressed. god gave us the sea and beach. we need to take care of it..every body can lend a hand like the dude pictured. don't throw garbage into the sea! or cig butts. its amazing how many people smoke in asia. and all those cig butts in the sea. shameful how we treat the earth

Sorry to say mate,but it's too late.I just look after my own patch.Got some praise once from admin types checking on our village for tidy town.We won.

[louse1953]

I live in canada and its not much diffrent here.camp sites in the bush covered in broken glass and garbage . Its sad ..when i was in thailand i found garbage cans for my garbage..my girlfriend thought it was funny i picked up garbage on the way to drop mine in.. i told her if everyone picked up a few pieces there would be none . I think next time im in pattaya ill hire some kids to clean the beach . No permit needed id think and lets them earn some baht.. garbage is everyones problem .. the earth is all of our home and we need to care

My missus used to throw rubbish out the car window."Do you love Thailand"i said.She took the hint.Now she throws it on the car floor for me to clean up at the next piss stop.Mai pen rai.

[petercool]

Another work permit off topic post removed.

[61guitarman61]

“It’s very embarrassing that Thais made the country dirty and a farang tried to clean it,” Nunok Indy commented.

Jakkrit Chainok said Thais have been raised this way so no one should be blamed. He added that Farang has been taught the otherwise.

Thainess vs Western ways.

Or:

Stupidity vs Sensibility

Mai Pen Rai vs Caring

Laziness vs Willing to Work

Haughty vs Down to Earth

[61guitarman61]

Some years ago a sign was placed in the soi in the pic below, in Thai: "No littering, fine 2000 baht". But police does never come here.

On Jomtien Beach a sign is placed: "No firework, fine 2000 baht" . Yet a tourist did (it was not Dec 31!), just 50m from the police station, police was too lazy to come out of the office. And this happened many times.

I saw a policeman eating and afterwards putting his plastic garbage on the street. I said 'What are you doing now?' Oh, it will be picked up in the evening by the garbage collectors, so no problem'.

I asked a beach chair vendor why he did not clean the 8m wide 'no mans land' next to his, because all the garbage might hurt his business.

Response: 'That is not my land, not my problem, not my business'.

Some beach chair vendors leave plastic bottles, bags (left by their customers) etc on the beach at the end of the day, and only clean their stretch the next day morning.

I asked the manager of Heritage Resort why he did not order his employees to clean the beach in front of his hotel (after some strong winds last September it was shocking dirty during many weeks). He replied: 'City Hall Must do this, not my problem'. I said: 'But it might hurt your business, your hotel guests won't like it, for sure!' I talked politely 5 mins with him, he just didn't care.

Same story with a neighboring hotel.

However I did have some success when talking to someone in Pattaya Park. Inside their (ugly, rusting fence) already during many years there was a lot of garbage, delivered by the wind. 2 days later about 95 % of it was cleaned.

But let me finish with a positive note:

Just lately I saw a Thai family of which the dad collected all the garbage when they left the beach!

When oh when will the police come off their lazy butts to fine people who leave garbage at the end of the day?

You do realize that in this country you will find a 10 million baht home right next to a thatch roof hut. In the west everyone worries about keeping up appearances. Wealthy people have segregated areas where there are no run down shacks allowed. This is the mentality of all Thais. Nothing matters. Mai Pen Rai is their religion.

[Yann55]

I am not going to jump onto the Thai Bashing Wagon, or the 'This Is Thainess' Club, because, as usual, I find most of the comments along these lines pretty mediocre, small-minded, repetitive and arrogant. All I'm going to say is this :

If you drop a cigarette butt in the streets of Bangkok and there's a cop nearby, you get a hefty fine on the spot. Thais are apparently very serious about not littering the streets of their beautiful (?) cities. But when it comes to natural sites, including the most incredibly beautiful ones, it seems that plastics bags, broken beer bottles, condoms and all kinds of weird revolting stuff are seen as perfectly acceptable.

Do Thai authorities see this garbage as Land Art or something ? Do Thai authorities consider that beaches, forests and other natural sites are so ugly that they need not be protected from littering ? Do Thai authorities ever consider that perhaps a regular cleaning team (involving voluntary workers and/or prisoners entitled to do community work) would be welcome in all those places ? Or that a wide television campaign telling people that it is NOT ok to deface lakes, woods, islands etc with disgusting garbage may be among the list of emergencies ?

Wouldn't 'returning beauty to the country' be as important as returning 'happiness to the people' ?

incidentally, Nepal, a country on which most Thai people seem to look down with undisguised condescencion for being dirty, messy, disorganized and thirdworldy, has just decreed (as of last week) that plastic bags are not to be handed out in shops any more. Just saying.

Edited April 23, 2015 by Yann55

[mercman24]

i have just seen a video of people dancing amongst the rubbish, songkram i presume, it would appear they bring their grub, eat it and just throw the bags on the ground. it was unbelievable

[Stokakrishna]

idiot

cleaning after thais. and thais praise him

Hey THAI FB users and all Thais, stop littering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you shower and take care of your body to be clean, but everything around you is dirty

[Local Drunk]

I am one of the farangs picking up garbage here in Jomtien beach .

You will find me early mornings with plastic bags and I try to clean up for 2-3 hours if it's not too hot. It's really good excercise for the whole body so I recommend everyone to try it. And maybe it will be inspiration for a few Thais that understand the beaches needs to be looked after and foreigners are expecting to find a clean beach when they go on holidays.

If you were a Thai, I'd be more impressed.

[balo]

I am one of the farangs picking up garbage here in Jomtien beach ...

I am unhappy about the garbage problem of this county, which had been like an innocent, lovely beauty some decades ago, and is now maltreated by a misdirected, "modern" development. It hurts to see it.

But the garbage problem is so a huge like the task of cleaning out the Augean stable. Collecting some garbage looks like fighting against windmills.

Yes, we can do a silent protest like collecting garbage, or going to the market with shopping bags. Yet the locals are sensitive to criticism from "aliens", it is not appreciated.

The green debate about the problem should come from within the society. Only with a nationwide effort the problem could be tackled. The first step would be creating awareness of the problem, and this could be done easily by a mere fingersnip of the significant people in the county. Only, WHO could change THEIR awareness?

Well , the farang picking up trash after the locals already got a debate going on Thai social media sites.

I am sure that some important people and the mayor of Pattaya who's promoting their beach resorts as a tourist destination do not like the attention from social media , if Thais don't care about it then visitors and local expats can do something to maybe change this.

The volunteer organization Trash Hero try to do something about this, I hope we can start something like this in Pattaya.

http://trashhero.org/

https://www.facebook.com/trashherothailand

Edited April 23, 2015 by balo

[Khun Riki]

hint for tour operators:

What about to add to f.e. 5D4N Package (2N Bangkok & 2N Pattaya) itinerary one day morning some nice exercise just before breakfast?

Cleaning the beach of Pattaya could be very adventurous...

[MAJIC]

It's not only in Thailand the litter gets spread far and wide,its nothing unusual in the UK Country roads to confront empty boxes of KFC & Mcdonalds plastic cups,and rubbish,which has been dumped late at night on a little used road. We have stringent laws for driving cars with no documentation,unless you pay a hefty fine,they get minced down your local scrap yard! boy wouldn't I just love to see it happen to the litter louts pride and joy!

[steve73]

Just read an article on Facebook about a resort on Koh Chang (no names) who recently deliberately dumped bags of garbage on their beach so that their visitors could do their own "beach clean" ....

<deleted>..?

[Strangebrew]

I had a Thai ask me why I held my empty water bottle so long Told was looking for a waste bin or recycle bin to drop it at. Got the strangest look from them. But now I see they took to the fine thing like fish to water, Maybe I should have mentioned there's gold in that thrash. I bought a new car in cash recycling cans and bottles took few years because so many were doing it. You know If Thailand allowed retired farangs who live here to be able to pickup thrash without fear of being seen as breaking the law a lot of this blight would be gone around here.

[lapd]

I was in Pratamnak soi 5 area last week in Pattaya, went to the beach there. I was absolutely disgusted with how filthy it was. I see this all over Thailand. The Thais treat their country like a garbage dump.

I think this comes down to the culture of the people, which needs to be changed through education.

When I was growing up in Canada (and we are talking a looooong time ago now), there was always government campaigns called keep B.C. Green. This was on small highway signs, TV and radio ads etc.

On a regular basis the schools would arrange garbage pick up days and all the students would go out and pick up garbage. When I got caught acting up and would get a detention at school, quite often the punishment would be garbage detail.

In my adulthood when I would go out camping, hunting or fishing, I would always take extra garbage bags and would try to take out more garbage than I brought in.

It is a culture that needs to change and can be changed through education. But if they never start they will never get there.

This is the same for many things in this country such as road safety etc. etc.

I get your point but the problem is that you are seeing it through first world eyes. I have been to a lot of 3rd world countries and they are all littered with garbage. So it's not at all unique to Thailand. When life is just about survival, a long list of things that may be important to people in first world countries, such as not littering...become very low priorities in 3rd or 2nd world countries.

Edited April 30, 2015 by lapd

[HooHaa]

He not got arrested for working without a work permit? That's quite amazing. Great guy, he is a perfect sample for his host country and it's people who don't give a shti.

i not sure what is more sad, the fact that this poster felt the need to trot out the work permit cliche, or the fact that 34 others liked it.

when will thai visa come up with some original material rather than the constant cliche bitching about work permits?