Thailand in top-10 worldwide plastic trashers

[Daniel Boon]

what about the southern hemisphere?

[ExpatOilWorker]

I am surprised India isn't on that list.

Edited November 2, 2015 by ExpatOilWorker

[anotheruser]

Funny! Asia after all is the most polluted & non-caring in such pollution in all the world, except maybe France. We need our plastic here for our trash bins, rather not follow stupid America in killing all the trees in exchange for paper bags or (corporate) requiring buyers to purchase plastic or cloth bags to carry their already expensive purchased merchandise.

Ignorant statement if I have ever seen one. You know most of the trees being killed in stupid America come from farms and are mainly renewable? Sure there are old growth stands that shouldn't be touched but your ordinary shopping bags aren't made from Redwood trees.

Harvesting young stands of trees for pulp doesn't really harm the forests much. We have millions upon millions of acres of trees for this purpose. The damage was done long ago when the forests were originally cut. Now they are no different than wheat or corn fields really. I dare say you could put the whole of Thailand and France together and it wouldn't equal the extent of the forests of stupid America. Add in Canada and the figure is astounding. Without the sustainable harvesting of timber modern society wouldn't be able to exist.

Old growth should be left alone now and for sure some select secondary forests should be allowed to grow into old growth but millions of acres of fast growing Aspen are ripe to harvest and the cuts provide habitat for many animals as well such as deer. High value or rare species aren't what toilet paper is made out of. Many of these forests if left unharvested would not return to be the majestic stands of old growth they replaced.

If you are opposed to harvesting Aspen and Balsam for pulp you are a fool. By that line of thinking you should oppose cutting bamboo.

So you don't want to follow stupid America in killing trees and also don't want to be required to buy bags? What are you suggesting should be done? Thailand doesn't have enough forests to use paper so obviously plastic is what they are stuck with or people need to carry bags that are reusable. Unless you want to share your idea of how to get around this? If there was a concerted clean up effort and most people carried reusable bags you would see quite a difference in only a few short years.

[BudRight]

Stop it --or say goodbye to life on the planet as we knew it!!!

Lets ALL do our bit to reduce pollution

the only way to stop plastic bags clogging our drains, killing marine life, polluting the country side, is for governments to force the change and make it happen, from plastic shopping bags to paper biodegradable bags.

why don't they force them ?

they don't really care about the future ?

You are wrong. Norway burns these bags in high temperature incinerators - Oslo generates much of its electricity this way. At over 1000C they're a good fuel source, less than that and it's pollution time.

Thailand already has the facilities to burn these properly in the cement kilns around Saraburi. Those are 1800C. I'll bet Elephant, TPI, and Eagle cement would all like to use these as a fuel source.

Edited November 2, 2015 by BudRight

[flyDelight]

Thailand already has the facilities to burn these properly in the cement kilns around Saraburi. Those are 1800C. I'll bet Elephant, TPI, and Eagle cement would all like to use these as a fuel source.

Yeah that's why there are in the Top 5 of biggest polluters. Even in Rwanda they have abandoned plastic bags completely, and in various cities in India, and in Filipino shopping malls.

The Thai plastic industry lobby is obviously pulling the strings.