Thai Ministry encourages people to refrain from using plastic bags

[DogNo1]

Reusable bags are unhygienic. Charging for plastic bags will be a real moneymaker for stores. Where will the money go? Save all the fuss and mandate environmentally degradeable bags. The notion of millions of plastic bags forming garbage gyres in the ocean is a myth. It's all of the larger garbage that is a problem.

[tigermoth]

The one item about a bag from supermarket staff is too true. There are only two solutions.

1. Ban the use of all plastic bags in supermarkets.

2. Make the use of biodegradable plastic bags compulsary.

The consequences of the above is that in (1&2) the supermarkets will have to provide biodegradable bags, paper or plastic, and no doubt increase costs to cover this, maybe based on a percentage of your total bill. Isn't it better for the population to pay this extra in the interests of the environment which will cost them a lot more indirectly to clean up. Of course, sadly, no one gives a s...t for their country unless they are getting something out of it so our children continue to suffer.

I believe that in Australia it is now compulsary to use biodegradable plastic bags.

[Baerboxer]

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.

Does the UK have millions of street vendors selling huge varieties of foods that are put into plastic bags? Didn't when I was there, never ever.

That's the big issue here. Thais might take a bag to Big C, Tesco and 7/11 - but how are the going to buy all that food without all those plastic bags and rubber bands? And don't forget the drinks poured into plastic bags filled with ice.

Seriously, most of my neighbors, like us, buy more ready food in than cook, massively more.

[irwinfc]

"urging" people will never be enough. pass a law that forbids the use of plastic bags and we'll get somewhere.