Garbage on Patong Beach

[DrDave]

Taking a stroll along Patong Beach on Tuesday, I was shocked by the amount of garbage that had washed up.

The most disturbing thing was that no effort was being made to clean it up (with the exception of one jetski guy near the center of the beach). In fact, there were jetski/parasail guys just sitting in their chairs in the middle of the worst parts. This was around noon - not early morning, so there would have been plenty of time to remove the garbage, had anyone cared. I really wanted to take a video of how far the garbage stretched, and how people had to pick their way through it in order to make their way along the beach, but I didn't want to attract any more attention from the local jetski/parasail goons.

In the past, Patong Municipality would have a group of workers with a tractor cleaning the beach and hauling away the garbage every morning. Seems reasonable to me that the Municipality should require those conducting business on the beach to clean the beach each morning.

[jcisco]

Sad way we treat our home.

[Mr Somtam]

You call that lots of waste? I have seen much worse on several very busy beaches around Thailand. Picking up garbage does NOT bring in tourist money so why do it? The stupid tourists come there anyway and have nowhere else to go so it makes no difference.

Until it's all over social media and in newspapers ofcourse...

Then a campaign will be launched by TAT, and everything will be solved in the normal 3 months. I don't see a problem really.

>/sarcasm off

If this continues tourism in these places will feel the full force of social media in action really quickly. It works like this:

Person X goes to a beach in Thailand and finds it a disgusting smelly. polluted rathole.

Person X then shares his findings with his 100+ friends on Facebook/twitter/Instagram and what have you.

A lot of those friends will share it to THEIR friends and so in no time tens of thousands of people will have read that this beach is filthy and they will have no appetite to go there.

These people when booking their holiday travels will go to other destinations than these stinking open gutters.

Tourism in these gutters will go down the drain, together witk the crap that is going there already.

Kow Chai Mai Khrab?

Edited May 20, 2015 by Mr Somtam

[robertthebruce]

Patong....sad to see, but I never venture there... Not my thing....

[cooked]

I have actually heard tourists muttering that they will never come back due to garbage.

If they do try to clean up it's generally with something completely unsuitable like a broom.

[steelepulse]

Those jetskis are supposed to be in the water, not on the sand. Looks like that didn't last long. BTW, this trash washing up is an annual event when the monsoons switch to the SW monsoon.

Yes it would be nice if the trash would be picked up, but the lazy bums on the beach know it will just wash up tomorrow during high tide so they don't want to overextend themselves on the exercise front by picking up trash daily.

[simon43]

Hey - that's my missing flip-flop!

[2fishin2]

Why wasnt the OP picking up the garbage if he is so worried about it? Its always somebody else's fault....its natural that things wash up on the beach. The time of the wash up is determined by the high tides of the day. It is natural that a municipality takes care of the beaches under their care. But TIT.

[Tchooptip]

The right place to show this kind of pictures is probably not ThaiVisa but FaceBook with a Thai account, could become viral in no time

[IamNoone88]

We should be more concerned with all the sh1t that is being dumped at sea. This is just a minute fraction. What you can't see is the problem.

[DrDave]

Why wasnt the OP picking up the garbage if he is so worried about it? Its always somebody else's fault....its natural that things wash up on the beach. The time of the wash up is determined by the high tides of the day. It is natural that a municipality takes care of the beaches under their care. But TIT.

How much of that garbage do you think 1 person (or 10 or even 20 people) could pick up? There was easily several pickup truckloads there.

And yes, my wife and I do pick up the occasional plastic bottles and beer cans and bags left by tourists.

[2fishin2]

There isnt that much garbage in the pics. Yesterday on Patong beach I watched a city water truck washing the sand and garbage off the road right back on the beach. Bitching about it here does. O good. Like said put it on facebook, thats the only way anything could ever get addressed.

[NoshowJones]

Why wasnt the OP picking up the garbage if he is so worried about it? Its always somebody else's fault....its natural that things wash up on the beach. The time of the wash up is determined by the high tides of the day. It is natural that a municipality takes care of the beaches under their care. But TIT.

OP cannot pick up the garbage, he won't get a work permit even if he wanted to do it free. TiT.

[NoshowJones]

Why wasnt the OP picking up the garbage if he is so worried about it? Its always somebody else's fault....its natural that things wash up on the beach. The time of the wash up is determined by the high tides of the day. It is natural that a municipality takes care of the beaches under their care. But TIT.

How much of that garbage do you think 1 person (or 10 or even 20 people) could pick up? There was easily several pickup truckloads there.

And yes, my wife and I do pick up the occasional plastic bottles and beer cans and bags left by tourists.

Without a work permit????

[Just1Voice]

Thai Thinking: "Not my crap. Not my job to pick it up."

[micmichd]

You call that lots of waste? I have seen much worse on several very busy beaches around Thailand. Picking up garbage does NOT bring in tourist money so why do it? The stupid tourists come there anyway and have nowhere else to go so it makes no difference.

Until it's all over social media and in newspapers ofcourse...

Then a campaign will be launched by TAT, and everything will be solved in the normal 3 months. I don't see a problem really.

>/sarcasm off

If this continues tourism in these places will feel the full force of social media in action really quickly. It works like this:

Person X goes to a beach in Thailand and finds it a disgusting smelly. polluted rathole.

Person X then shares his findings with his 100+ friends on Facebook/twitter/Instagram and what have you.

A lot of those friends will share it to THEIR friends and so in no time tens of thousands of people will have read that this beach is filthy and they will have no appetite to go there.

These people when booking their holiday travels will go to other destinations than these stinking open gutters.

Tourism in these gutters will go down the drain, together witk the crap that is going there already.

Kow Chai Mai Khrab?

Person X is probably the one that litters most.

[ttthailand]

Hopeless cause.....Thais don't care until everything totally collapses and they absolutely have to do something, Thainess !

[Mr Somtam]

You call that lots of waste? I have seen much worse on several very busy beaches around Thailand. Picking up garbage does NOT bring in tourist money so why do it? The stupid tourists come there anyway and have nowhere else to go so it makes no difference.

Until it's all over social media and in newspapers ofcourse...

Then a campaign will be launched by TAT, and everything will be solved in the normal 3 months. I don't see a problem really.

>/sarcasm off

If this continues tourism in these places will feel the full force of social media in action really quickly. It works like this:

Person X goes to a beach in Thailand and finds it a disgusting smelly. polluted rathole.

Person X then shares his findings with his 100+ friends on Facebook/twitter/Instagram and what have you.

A lot of those friends will share it to THEIR friends and so in no time tens of thousands of people will have read that this beach is filthy and they will have no appetite to go there.

These people when booking their holiday travels will go to other destinations than these stinking open gutters.

Tourism in these gutters will go down the drain, together witk the crap that is going there already.

Kow Chai Mai Khrab?

Person X is probably the one that litters most.

And the one who sees his own turds from the hotel toilet again while swimming...

[Franko666]

Sad way we treat our home.

Yep, looks just like any tourist beach, sad but true.

[neeray]

This Thai "trait" is completely incomprehensible to me. When in my home Country of Canada, people say I glow when I speak of Thailand. But it is common to be reminded by a select few who have actually visited Thailand about how dirty the country is. How embarrassing it is to hear this from people!

But I still glow.

This would be such a simple problem to solve. And the solution would give Thailand tourism a huge boost with long term payoffs.

[TerrylSky]

Every time I go to Koh Tao I stroll along the beach in my bikini picking up garbage in the warm sun. People think I'm crazy for spending part of my vacation that way. The garbage that washes up on the beach is a physical example of the attitude and laziness of citizens regarding their country, land, sea and environment. Basically, most people don't give a shit. It's just like my villagers in the north who take pride in burning their garbage and grass (instead of composting like me) to the extent they have to take time of off work and take their children out of school to go to the hospital for respiratory and asthma problems. Put their brain on a razor blade would be like a pea rolling down a four lane highway - in Los Angeles.

[DavisH]

Really makes me wonder how many foreign tourists are repeat tourists. I would have thought the dirtiness and scams would send tourists to other countries instead.

[micmichd]

Dear TerylSky,

you're not crazy, and it's not people that think you're crazy.

It's just some Farangs on holiday from dust and smog.

[micmichd]

Dear TerrylSky,

you're not crazy, and it's not people that think you're crazy.

It's just some Farangs

[zaZa9]

Lovely Surin was the same today

But its my conclusion that a great deal of this flotsam is created by people of the sea , fisherman and tour boats

I had a good look at this stuff today , 4 large pieces of white foam with bamboo markers attached , heaps of lengths of nylon ropes and cords , a huge bundle of discarded nets , 9 little brown red bull bottles , a host of plastic drinking bottles - 2 filled with urine , a large yellow fishing float , numerous discarded bic lighters and flip flops , 2 giant 'squidders' light bulbs , lots of bits of painted boat wood , and of course, loads of plastic bags , many of which were for packaging ice and bait

My conclusion is that much of this rubbish was discarded at sea , not washed down stream as I previously assumed

[CrummyJuggler]

Beach garbage/plastic is a local people issue across SEA and I do not fault tourists like some previous posters. Attached a recent pic from beautiful Otres beach in Cambodia with lots of plastic trash on a particularly bad day. My amateur beach-walking analysis was that 1/3 of it was marine trash like nets/lures/lines from fisherman and the rest Angkor beer and takeaway local-food trash. Locals do not think it is a problem, who is harmed by it anyway? FAIL.

[eliotness]

In the UK various groups, schools, Rotary clubs, Lions clubs, concerned locals etc etc organise beach clean-up days, usually on a Sunday morning. It's shocking what is washed up, mainly thrown overboard from ships. It's a world-wide problem, but regular clean-up sessions can minimise the horrible sight. Then again tourist places in Europe have dawn beach cleaning patrols, very effective. Thailand needs to copy not ignore.

[micmichd]

There are many places where you can drop garbage on the outskirts, and quite a few people live on recycling it.

Please give them a little time, it took more than 20 years in Europe for stepwise solutions.

Some of the garbage might have to be burned, might cause smell pollution. Hands up if you'd accept that in your neighbourhood.

[Benmart]

Dr Dave, thanks for the photos. They should be included in TATs upcoming "scheme", entitled "The Amazing Trash of Thailand".

I've written off Phuket and have advised friends and acquaintances that there are alternatives to Phuket's high prices, high priced taxis services, indifferent service mentality and dirty beaches.

When the Tsunami struck, people from around the world reached out to help. Now that enough time has elapsed, it seems to be business as usual, with indifference, greed and lethargy being the mantra for many locals.

I live in Thailand full-time and try to look past the stink and litter that seems to be in many places.

[cardinalblue]

2F2,

Garbage is not natural...any garbage is too much garbage...your attitude is a lost cause....

CB