PM asks Thais to stop using plastic bags every 15th day of the month

[55Jay]

I went to town's weekend market today. Doesn't seem to be catching on yet, granted it's the 16th. Mr and the Mrs. were the only ones carrying our Krungsi reusable cloth shopping bags. Was able to fend off 3 unnecessary bags.

[mango66]

plastic bags i re-use;

Paper bags and boxes not as strong as,

so u use more or dubble,

and paper and boxes using more space in garbidge box than plastics;

Paper you make from green trees - forests 1

Plastic is a chemical side-product of oilproduction !

[northernphil]

Its ok . the PM has asked Thais to stop using plastic bags. Us ferlung are ok because we are the ones that can see the problems.. Buy a plastic bag in 7-eleven and you get one free.

[ekkamai]

If you want a plastic bag - pay for it. And not just 5 BHT. Make it 25 BHT. Easy!

[impulse]

I used to purchase the big garbage bags, but here in Thaiand, trash starts stinking so quickly that I have gone to re-using my grocery bags to "remind" me to take them down to the trash bin more often.

I still use the big bags for big trash like the boxes that appliances come in, but the smaller re-used bags are much handier. And no trash basket needed- they hang on the pantry door knob.

you have to sort food in separate bag to put away quickly, or compost in your garden, and bag for dry trach, can stay weeks, no smell .. and separate the plastic bottles and cans for the people that come to collect them, instead of let them dig in your stinky trash

I live on the 5th floor smack dab in the middle of BKK. No garden. No desire to separate my 1 little bag of daily trash, because the big truck that collects it spends hours out on the street in front before dawn doing just that. I do keep the recyclable plastic water bottles separate because the apartment workers recycle those before the big truck gets them. I get 6 1.5 liter bottles in a Big C plastic bag...

Every night, I move my daily trash bag (full, or not full) from the pantry door knob to the front door knob so I remember to take it down while I'm still half asleep leaving for the office.

[Incobart]

that will be nice at for example mega bagna shopping center

no bags and your trolley cannot go till your car

that will work out just great

and If you use your own re-usebal strong bags ?

[ableguy]

plastic bags i re-use;

Paper bags and boxes not as strong as,

so u use more or dubble,

and paper and boxes using more space in garbidge box than plastics;

Paper you make from green trees - forests 1

Plastic is a chemical side-product of oilproduction !

And your point is ??

[Christie Paul]

Whilst the economy is on the verge of a crisis and millions of Thais are staring straight into an economic black hole of poverty...

The gravitas and political capital of the highest office in the land is focused on plastic bags.

[MW72]

Surely the best incentive is a financial one? Charge people for bags and they will use less. Businesses can save money by encouraging customers not to use plastic bags.

[hawker9000]

I use the plastic bags from the supermarket as garbage bags. If these are not abailable anymore, I will need to buy garbage bags. What's the difference?

.. that you buy them, and use when you need them

Uhh, so how is the plastic bag that you buy and use (once) for garbage disposal, that's probably bigger and 8x as "strong" (i.e., involves considerably more plastic), better for the environment than the free minimalist plastic bag that's being reused? OK, so some commercially available trash bags are biodegradable; so make that a requirement for the free single-use bags. And if that means merchants have to start charging for them, that's probably the way it needs to be. People already have the choice of buying reusable shopping bags (& going back to the brown paper bags in some places).

I find the plastic bags come in handy as household garbage can liners as well as for storing some things, but I agree they're a scourge societally, as are plastic water & drink bottles, esp. in places (and Thailand is not alone) with so little litter awareness. And the "used once" criticism is generally valid and probably reason enough to ban them, or at least disincentivize them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe put a CRV on them and let people redeem it a recycling centers to get their money back. That's been in place for some time now in California - and the single-use bags have supposedly been outlawed unless biodegradable (and before anyone starts, the state all by itself is the world's 8th largest economy). 'Course, I know how that's likely to work out in Thailand; it'll just turn into a tax that goes nowhere but into bureaucrats' pockets, but ...

[craigt3365]

that will be nice at for example mega bagna shopping center

no bags and your trolley cannot go till your car

that will work out just great

and If you use your own re-usebal strong bags ?

Exactly. No different than shopping at Makro. Or at Tesco in Europe. Or almost any store in many other countries. No bags provided unless you pay for them. You bring your own. I kept a bag rolled up in my backpack and it worked great. Reused it for weeks.

Here, I've got 6-7 of those reuseable cloth bags. I've had them for 5 years now and they are still going strong. We were the first ones to use them at our local Tesco. You actually get extra points if you bring your own bags.

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Yup... Ask Thais to stop using plastic on the 15 th of the month is like asking Thais to stop buying lottery tickets on the 15 th...

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

Make it beneficial by offering cash for their plastics on the 14 th.

[craigt3365]

Whilst the economy is on the verge of a crisis and millions of Thais are staring straight into an economic black hole of poverty...

The gravitas and political capital of the highest office in the land is focused on plastic bags.

This is hardly the highest priority of the current government. As with most governments around the world, they deal with many issues simultaneously. Just like here.

Congrats to this government for trying to make this a reality. Previous governments have tried, but obviously, without much success.

In his weekly “Returning Happinesss to the Thai People” programme on Friday night, the prime minister said that the amount of plastic garbage would be 70 million plastic bags less per day if every Thai stops using just one plastic bag a day.

Perhaps an over estimation, but even at 20 million plastic bags less per day, it's a big deal.

You talk about money. This is interesting:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/28/thailand-plastic-bags

BMA figures show that every day, more than 600,000 plastic bags are used in this city of nine million people.

Their annual disposal cost reaches more than 600 million baht (18.4 million dollars), city officials have said. Local media have quoted BMA deputy governor Porntep Techapaibul as saying that of the city's daily 10,000 tonnes of trash, about 1,800 tonnes are plastic bags, a number projected to increase by about 20 percent each year.

By now, many Bangkok residents have heard of the health and environmental hazards posed by plastic bags. Made from a non-renewable natural resource, petroleum, the bags have for their main ingredient polyethylene — or polythene — which is said to take 1,000 years to decompose on land and 450 years in water.

[mmh8]

ok, so on the 15th we dump our garbage on the streets without use of bags,

[z42]

The sad fact is that Thai people aren't going to stop using them. The ban itself should be on plastic bags that aren't biodegradable. A small charge (2-5 baht) made for bags that are made using biodegradable materials is the way to go.

There is too little Education and awareness around the issues of recycling and re usage here. Without the people who scavenge through bins for plastic bottles and tin cans to recycle them Thailand would be experiencing a much more dire situation than it does already.

This is a baby step sure, but it is something that needs firm action. Outright banning non biodegradable bags (manufacture / import / distribution) is the only way progress can be made. Once people know there are penalties levied for bagging everything then they are more likely to stop or at the very least use less than they would now.

Also ths seems to be skirting the bigger issue of actually getting people to re use and recycle more

[boomerangutang]

At Ko Pangang, near the Full Moon Party beach, I rented a mask and snorkel, and asked the woman there to recommend a place to try it out. She said with a big beautiful smile, "Oh there's a lovely area with corals and fish nearby" and explained how to get there. I went there, put on the mask, stuck my head underwater, and all I could see was light yellow plastic bags suspended everywhere. It was horrible. And it was back in 1998, so 17 yrs later it must surely be worse. Perhaps now, it's just a landfill of plastic along the shore.

[skildpadden]

You have to start somewhere by addressing this country's waste of resources. However it is too confusing with "no plastic bag" once a month - people will not remember it.

I agree with other posters that a ban on plastic bags, tax on plastic bags and a demand that you pay for your bags in e.g. supermarkets will reduce the amount of plastic bags - in combination with a litter shaming campaign.
Reducing use of plastic bags has been done many other countries in the world, and although Thailand is as we know very unique, it can also be done here.

Since we are already talking about banning "containers" I believe it would be proper to also have a look at the use of Styrofoam boxes - that might be even more of a environmental issue than the plastic bags?

[boomerangutang]

Every other day of the month, needlessly use mountains of plastic bags as you do ordinarily.

[55Jay]

It will take a generation or two to train the population, and they ought to include base-line lessons such as it's NOT acceptable to litter on the street, concurrently with high-minded, progressive ideas like this one.

No revelation here, and I've witnessed far more egregious examples in the middle east/gulf region, but just yesterday, the Mrs and I were in our truck wanting to turn left into a small soi in our town, but stuck behind a slow moving tuk tuk taxi during school ending time. A young student in uniform, maybe 6 years old, was dangling a small plastic bag from his fingertips outside the tuk tuk, seeming to enjoy how it waved in the wind, then he let it go.

My wife wagged her finger at him, so I gave the car horn a 1/2 toot, he looked right at us and we both shook our fingers at him through the windscreen.

His face registered confused curiosity, so there was no correlation in his mind between his act of littering and us shaming him. A missed opportunity.

[mmh8]

was the one I heard about the pm asking people not to drink and not to piss on the 20th of every month going ahead?

apparantly this will be the preservation of water to prevent flooding or drouts project. a new bureau of water adjustment to prevent the droughts or the floods will be opened on chang wattana across the road from central

[lostinisaan]

"The Thai people have to help to find ways to help Thai people. "

"Thai people should help foreign ex sex-tourists and discuss important topics at non-existing prostitutional institutions also called "bar beers" while Thai soldiers will check the size of foreign women's bikinis physically, because that could cause a huge bulge in soldiers trousers and to avoid that Thailand's image will turn into a negative one, which might be the reason that Thailand will soon create its own Marshall Plan".

It's not yet sure who the Marshall will be, but the good soldier is working on it and is very positive that the problems this country's facing can be solved within a timespan of one up to 99 years. Or both.

The safety of ALL foreign tourists will be expanded and free condoms will be given to those who can't afford them. Freefall from balconies, Bungee jumping activities as well as the marriage to a Thai bar girl will be made much easier.

Wasn't it about plastic bags? Plastic bags from now on will be recycled and given to poor villager's, usable as condoms, to avoid teenage poverty pregnancy and to help Thai people to understand what recycling/reuse and reduce really means.

I can't live without his speeches anymore.