Thai Ministry encourages people to refrain from using plastic bags

[webfact]

MNRE encourages people to refrain from using plastic bags

BANGKOK, 11 August 2015 (NNT)-The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is encouraging people to refrain from using plastic bags and foam containers one day every month.

According to Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Daopong Rattanasuwan, the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion and 16 private companies have launched a campaign urging people to stop using plastic bags and foam boxes.

People are encouraged to follow the advice, which is aimed at promoting the use of cloth bags, one day a month beginning on August 15th and on the 15th day of every month thereafter. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will monitor the use of plastic bags every two months in the beginning and assess the success of the scheme every 4 months.

The campaign will be introduced 2-3 days a week instead of once a month if public responses are positive. The Natural Resources and Environment Minister said plastic bags are very popular items among cities and large communities as they are easy to use.

As the bags are discarded shortly after use, Thai people need to be aware of their impact on the environment. Thailand could lower the use of plastic bags by as many as 1 million a day if everyone use of just one fewer plastic bag a day.


-- NNT 2015-08-11

[tbthailand]

give a hoot, don't pollute...

[PatOngo]

So what do they pull over their helmetless heads on the motorcy now when it's raining...........................well???

[Just1Voice]

Take away their plastic bags and rubber bands, and you'd have mass suicide in Thailand within a week.

[bangkokfrog]

I hope that 7/11 is one of the 16 companies. The only trouble with encouraging cloth bags is that you have to think ahead and always bring them with you... nah, not here!!!

[coulson]

Don't encourage.........waste of time..........charge for bags, everyone will adapt when it hits their pocket, and the streets will be cleaner within weeks.

Why do they not observe what has already worked elsewhere in the world!

[Jim walker]

Plastic bags are a thing of the past now in the UK and even when I am in Thailand now I always have a cloth bag with me just in case I pop into Family mart on the way home never use a plastic bag whether in UK or Thailand but in Thailand I often have to say no plastic please and sometimes when I give them my cloth bag they put messages in plastic then into my bag it took about a year in the UK for people to get used to no plastic bags so probably about 10 for Thailand and they will do the same.

[stoli]

I have never thrown away an empty plastic bag. It is always full of trash. Living on the 10th floor of a condo, I can't see using the services and power of an elevator every day to carry a plastic trash can down to the garage, and bringing it back up. When I leave my condo, I take the plastic bag, full of trash, to the garage. If the supermarkets did not provide these bags, I would be forced to buy them, which negates any effect of getting rid of them.

[Thailand]

Admirable.

A good start would be banning the use of plastic bags within 300 yards of schools and colleges etc.

Easily policed by the same guys who are policing the sale of alcohol within the same boundaries.

[Chicog]

These are a good idea.....

[HooHaa]

want to encourage people not to use plastic bags?

charge them 5 baht a bag for the privilege.

[glasswort]

The only way to cure Thais (and most other Asian nations for that matter) of their love of plastic bags is to make people pay for them. Start at the source with the large chains and force them to pay a tax on all plastic bags purchased; make the tax so punitive that they will have to pass the cost to the customer.

This one day per month idea is an absolute nonsense and doomed to fail. I always take my own cloth shopping bag. I have one permanently in the car and one under the scooter seat. So easy.

[WeeWee]

at last. I at least cover the topic in esl lessons and uni students are slightly aware - others think it is a 'fad'. hopefully if we make it trendy enough there could be a real shift. Even saw 'reuse recycle' written on a dunkin donuts box. ABOUT TIME!!

[Transporter]

I dont believe what I am reading! When I shop in any big store here the checkout personnel sometimes put 1 item in a bag and then go on putting 2 bags on anything liquid. I estimate they use twice as many bags as necessary and you want me to pay 5 baht a bag. No Chance!

Even if you buy an 8 x 4 sheet of plywood they tape a bag on it despite it being the only item you are buying and have a receipt. It is nonsense to suggest shoppers are responsible for using too many bags. TRAIN THE STAFF!

The other problem is if you walk into a Do Home they will not let you in with a bag at all! We have visited the same Do Home at least a hundred times and they still treat us like common thieves. I recently went in with an item they sold me which had a major part missing from the box. The door staff saw me come in and go straight to returns. It was all sorted and they replaced it. I put the bag with the receipts in my trolley and headed in. The same staff stopped me saying I cant take the bag or item in. I showed him the receipt but he still stopped me saying he would hold onto the item until I leave. Stupid idiot. I refuse to shop there anymore until they publicly declare they have fully and properly trained their staff.

[oneday]

"...MNRE encourages people to refrain from using plastic bags..."

Yeah, should do the trick. We should start seeing instant results within the next few days. What a wonderful effort has been put into this. The people at the MNRE have done a wonderful job and can now go on vacation for the next few months. What more needs to be done?

Edited August 11, 2015 by oneday

[BuaBS]

The ones I don't use for trash or packing , I take back to europe . Family likes them for kittylitter and other things. So the more the better.

[Squeegee]

Hemp, banana leaves, all kinds of stuff like that.

[little mary sunshine]

Ban all plastic bags.might help clean up this filthy place.

People will bring their own cloth bags.

[Docno]

Dumb question, perhaps: but how are condo dwellers supposed to manage their garbage without plastic bags? Paper bags are not an option. You can't throw raw garbage down a chute. So what to do?

[ratcatcher]

Dumb question, perhaps: but how are condo dwellers supposed to manage their garbage without plastic bags? Paper bags are not an option. You can't throw raw garbage down a chute. So what to do?

Not a dumb question, but the issue here is the plastic bags that stores such as the major large supermarket chains and 7-11 automatically pack your purchases in.

Plastic garbage bags can be purchased, and used as such and then they go to the landfill. The problem lies with people just discarding the bags along the roads. We use the plastic Tesco bags to drop our household garbage into, then they go in the bin on the street. when the bin's Laden, the garbage boys empty it into the big orange truck and we never see it again.

[arkom]

I dont believe what I am reading! When I shop in any big store here the checkout personnel sometimes put 1 item in a bag and then go on putting 2 bags on anything liquid. I estimate they use twice as many bags as necessary and you want me to pay 5 baht a bag. No Chance!

Even if you buy an 8 x 4 sheet of plywood they tape a bag on it despite it being the only item you are buying and have a receipt. It is nonsense to suggest shoppers are responsible for using too many bags. TRAIN THE STAFF!

The other problem is if you walk into a Do Home they will not let you in with a bag at all! We have visited the same Do Home at least a hundred times and they still treat us like common thieves. I recently went in with an item they sold me which had a major part missing from the box. The door staff saw me come in and go straight to returns. It was all sorted and they replaced it. I put the bag with the receipts in my trolley and headed in. The same staff stopped me saying I cant take the bag or item in. I showed him the receipt but he still stopped me saying he would hold onto the item until I leave. Stupid idiot. I refuse to shop there anymore until they publicly declare they have fully and properly trained their staff.

I was at the supermarket at The Mall Ngamwongwan, bought 5 different things that could've been put in one, instead they put in 4 bags and one double. I told them to just put it one bag, but just smiled.

[tuanku]

You have to tax plastic bags and foam containers to make them too expensive before people will look for alternatives. The advantage of this approach is that it is a nice revenue stream for the government for a while until habits change.

[Transporter]

The only way to cure Thais (and most other Asian nations for that matter) of their love of plastic bags is to make people pay for them. Start at the source with the large chains and force them to pay a tax on all plastic bags purchased; make the tax so punitive that they will have to pass the cost to the customer.

This one day per month idea is an absolute nonsense and doomed to fail. I always take my own cloth shopping bag. I have one permanently in the car and one under the scooter seat. So easy.

So do you smuggle it into Do Home then as they will not let you in wibag. On some days they have even asked to search my wifes handbag on the way into the store. Home Hub is the same!

[MaxiJaz]

You have to tax plastic bags and foam containers to make them too expensive before people will look for alternatives. The advantage of this approach is that it is a nice revenue stream for the government for a while until habits change.

I agree, but who owns the plastic bag manufacturers??

[Nuddy]

I have seen no indication of what they are saying in the supermarkets in Thailand.

Have you?

Sure talk about other countries and policies all you want but the question is where is it happening?

This OP is pure BS

Regards

[Yahooka]

The problem is not the plastic bags,but national sport of discarding them all in the nature instead of the bins !!!

[Local Drunk]

Dumb question, perhaps: but how are condo dwellers supposed to manage their garbage without plastic bags? Paper bags are not an option. You can't throw raw garbage down a chute. So what to do?

Not a dumb question, but the issue here is the plastic bags that stores such as the major large supermarket chains and 7-11 automatically pack your purchases in.

Plastic garbage bags can be purchased, and used as such and then they go to the landfill. The problem lies with people just discarding the bags along the roads. We use the plastic Tesco bags to drop our household garbage into, then they go in the bin on the street. when the bin's Laden, the garbage boys empty it into the big orange truck and we never see it again.

I wrote a few hundred words on this subject and deleted them.

[Ulic]

Even in the Philippines the grocery stores ask customers (Puerto Galera) to bring there own bags.

As mentioned earlier charge 5 baht to customers but charge at the source of the bags and have

the shops recover the cost from customers. The TAT/Government need to launch a multi year

youth campaign to stop littering in Thailand. Save Thailand's tourist industry.

[tigermonkey]

It's not rocket science folks. Firstly, any bags distributed by retailers should be made of biodegradable or ultraviolet degradable plastic. Secondly, the retailers.should be made to charge 10 baht for each bag. If the bags find their way into litter, landfill or the ocean, they will begin to dissolve after 6 months to a year. Condo residents can still use them to dump their trash.

Retailers must be made to sell cloth bags at a reasonable price - 50 Baht ? They can include the retailers advertising. The hi-so can buy the 100 - 150 baht designer bags with no advertising.

It's called an integrated program and must be compulsory.

Just out of curiosity, I am interested in the orange plastic bags used by Rimping. The few that I have kept are useless after about one year and are falling apart. Are they degradable ?

[01322521959]

This makes my blood boil! A mate of mine boo hoos my idea of reusing bags when I go shopping. I have a couple of large white plastic bags which I've been using when I go shopping either on my push bike or my little Honda. Does take a bit longer at TOPS check out, but what the heck. 7/11 are a joke, I give them my old plastic bag, they chuck it in the bin thinking I want a new one. Until training is given or a policy change, nothing will happen. There is just a complete lack of awareness. Ministry has it all wrong. But having lived here 20+ years, not a lot does change IMHO.