Garbage collection fee to increase sevenfold
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- New legislation for garbage management is being drafted by the Ministry of Health in response to a daily average increase from about 9,400 tons to 10,000 tons this summer, the responsibility for which Thatri Wattanakachorn, director of garbage disposal, dumps on the bounty of tropical fruits for sale.

According to the data, each Bangkokian dumps one kilogram of garbage per day, meaning an average household of five throws away 150 kilograms of stuff per month. A fair amount of that being fruit, if Thatri is to be trusted.

The new law is expected to encourage residents to separate their trash and make an effort to recycle, as officials spend THB1.2 billion each year to manage the garbage disposal while collecting only around THB100 million in collection fees.

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2015/04/22/garbage-collection-fee-increase-sevenfold


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2015-04-22

The new law is expected to encourage residents to separate their trash and make an effort to recycle,

Not sure how a seven fold increase in collection fee will encourage people to do anything extra, but OK.

Rules will be set to decide whether how much households will pay. Those who don’t throw away much may not have to pay a single baht at all.

If consideration is being given to basing the fee on quantity of waste, it’s entirely unclear how they plan to measure monthly household waste.

How very typical of our lawmakers.

And you got to love this one.

Meanwhile, under the proposed rules tourists will also have to pay THB2 fee a day while staying in Thailand, a fee to be collected from hotel operators,

wont happen, easier to just throw it all on the ground, just look at all the roads, beaches, vacant land lots etc.....

Yeah....a seven fold increase in collection fee would result in loads of people burning there own garbage or trying too......

( Over ) Next doors fence could pop up in some peoples minds

We just recently got trash pickup from our district. The cost is 30 baht a month. I can afford to pay 150 pay but can others in our district be able to do that? Sounds like a big increase in fees.

But don't the binmen sift through your rubbish anyway for a few baht drinking money or whatever, i know they do when they visit my complex.

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But don't the binmen sift through your rubbish anyway for a few baht drinking money or whatever, i know they do when they visit my complex.

True, a few years back had some friends renting in a not cheap village in Ban Chang. All the owners / residents put their garbage bags in their cars whenever they went outside the village and put it in bins at service stations etc.

Why? In previous times the binmen had opened and rummaged through the plastic bags, saved what they wanted and left most of the unwanted scraps etc., scattered all over the footpaths and internal roads. Many discussions with the contractor produced no improvement whatever, so the owners / residents decided to dispose of their own rubbish, outside.

The contract with the pick up contractor was not renewed. Contractor objected to the non-renewal of contract but withdrew when the developer said 'no need for contract, no rubbish to take away, and owners refuse to pay for something which doesn't exist'.

Unfortunately not much impact by the campaign to decline/outlaw plastic bags in shops. It's hard to avoid one in a 7/11 even for a single item. Most of them are not the biodegradable types and just end up in landfill or waterways.

I'll just burn mine then.

In Europe, municipal solid waste per capita, per year is from 300 to 800 kg depending on the country.

If Bangkok area is 150 kg per 5 people, per month as stated above, then the annual rate is 360 kg per person.

Now, those European places don't have much in the way of tropical fruits, so perhaps the comparison is invalid.

Good idea. I don't mind paying.

We get a very good service.

I'll just burn mine then.

. I didn't find this Amusing at all...

Becoming more green and more aware of the environment is a good idea, too bad it is a tough ask after a lifetime of chucking things away with out consideration for the damage they are doing. Too many Thais think "why should I separate this stuff ... I am too good to do this"

How are they gonna try and implement pay as you dump? good luck with thay

No problem with price increase,all we will see is more garbage thrown on the streets and empty blocks of land.

Unfortunately not much impact by the campaign to decline/outlaw plastic bags in shops. It's hard to avoid one in a 7/11 even for a single item. Most of them are not the biodegradable types and just end up in landfill or waterways.

Thank God...

Yea what Thailand needs is to raise the bar to 1st world EXPENSIVE highly regulated ticket writing trash police standards...

Yeah....a seven fold increase in collection fee would result in loads of people burning there own garbage or trying too......

That is what is done in our village. No.... absolutely NO trash pickup.

Good idea. I don't mind paying.

We get a very good service.

I agree. I just "flashed" on an article I read recently: Denmark (could be wrong a/b this location) heats thousands of homes vie incinerating trash. Wouldn't this be an approach Thailand might consider? lol But to put the energy to another use..... not to heat houses.

Expense is the reality of development, and materialism has its costs.

The inevitable drag and scream towards the real world, a very expensive place.

Officials are planning to increase the garbage collection fee from THB20 to THB150 maximum per household to encourage Bangkok residents to dump less.

So what are they to do with the left over garbage that they don't dump?

"if Thatri is to be trusted."

555555555!!!

It would be interesting to see a breakdown of what BKK residents are actually throwing away. In Isaan it seems the biggest problem is plastic bags and polystyrene trays. All other plastic, glass and metals have a value and very little gets dumped. If a large amount of fruit is being thrown away then I would suggest smaller portions for sale, otherwise they need to work out a composting regime. Could use 44 to enforce it.

Rubbish story

But don't the binmen sift through your rubbish anyway for a few baht drinking money or whatever, i know they do when they visit my complex.

I thought the increase might be for bomb sniffing equipment to stop them getting injured while sifting the rubbish.

How many more rats will there be if they separate the fruit from the plastic and toss the fruit on the street?

The household waste collection fee was raised in Bangkok from B20 to B60 along time ago. The increase to B150 is therefore only 2.5times.

Why the increase? If you read the newspapers you should remember that Police General Somyot Pumpunmuang, the Chief of Police under the Government of General Prayut, owns 50% of M-Link. The Samart/M-Link JV aims to build at least seven Waste To Energy Plants, therefore the collection fee needs to be increased substantially to pay the JV to process the waste.

Maybe they could handle it like the National Parks.......Farangs could be charged 10x the price.

Such a typical local knee jerk reaction. In order to make a system both profitable and functional we need to impose a 700 % increment on our current charges.

Legislation in Thailand is hardly ever objective nor is it implemented and enforced in any form likely to assist in making it work.

Increased prices are the local panacea for ignorance, incompetence,tardiness and of course greed. Productivity and improvement do not even get considered.

In my home town we have a bar code underneath the rim of our waste bins. 17 collections per year are within the regular rate, every extra collection is costly. Therefore everybody is willing to recycle as much as they can, i.e: PP, PET, PE, White-, and coloured glass, as well as waste paper. Leftovers from lacquers, electronics, batteries can be disposed at special collecting points. Waste from flowers, tree leaves and branches are being deposited in a brown coloured bin, an emptied for free. Those contents are being processed to potting sol.

For a start, the best thing Thailand could do, is to add the garbage collecting fee to the house taxes, according to the size of the house, and not have somebody to collect these fees separately.

Headline in a few months will read...

Economic growth forecast less than expected as residents consume less to avoid rising waste costs...