Plastic-bag-mania in 7-11

[duanebigsby]

we were probably the same 20 years ago. I agree though its ridiculous bag for everything, even 2 bags if you get some water. i guess all we can do is say no thanks

Which is easy to do.

Carry a canvas bag, tell them no plastic bag, on your way.

It will take generations for Thailand to reduce it's plastic consumption, but the schools are trying to teach it and as people do their part ,eventually there may be progress.

Whining about how it's done here when it is so simple to opt out of the system is just lazy.

I agree with you, we can say no thanks.

Edited December 10, 2015 by duanebigsby

[duanebigsby]

All the OP has to do is take his own plastic bags, hemp sacks, or whatever he'd prefer, and tell the 7-11 staff to put his items in it.

In places like Australia, when you go to the bottle shop, they don't give out any plastic bags at all. If they have any spare, you might get a dirty old cardboard box, or you might have to carry the goods around with nothing to put them in. Add to that the sky rocketing cost of electricity, so as to subsidise all those unproductive wind farms, showers that emit tiny jets of water, half-flushing toilets, horrid fluorescent light bulbs, etc, etc.

I'm glad that the tree-hugging eco-nazis that rule over us in the west haven't got their way here, yet.

Careless people like you are the reason "Eco Nazis" are required in today's world.

Did you know that the largest percentage of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean comes from SE Asia?...and there is a huge island of it out there.

01 plastic.jpg

That's actually a photo of the debris caused by the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

True.

The island of plastic bags in the pacific is actually the size of Texas, or so the eco-zealots tell us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch.

Anyway, who cares, the Pacific is a big place, and the North Pacific Gyre, a rotating current of water, keeps all trash in a place where nobody ever goes.

Eco-obsessives get on my nerves - while they bang on to all of us about how frugal we should be, most of them fly around in planes, wilfully polluting the atmosphere with all those greenhouse gases. They should walk or cycle everywhere - bunch of hypocrites.

De Nile....big river in Egypt. Yeah, who cares?

Last time I tried to walk from Bangkok to Vancouver, I realized it may take too long.

You can fly but still be environmentally aware. Do you realize airline fuel efficiency has made leaps and bounds to be better over the years?

Do you wear your blinkers on only at night or all the time?

[prakhonchai nick]

Staff are "trained" to do a job, and if that includes placing things in bags, thats what they do, its not "their" decision, that comes from higher up and whoever is training them.

Most Thai staff, whether in 7/11 any shop or restaurant are not trained to do anything. Hence plastic bags for everything, starters after main courses in restaurants etc etc.

[impulse]

In 7-11, probably true.

But I've seen rat pee and mold and mildew and dirt encrusted cans and bottles sold in other countries, and occasionally off the beaten path in Thailand. Straws are not a bad idea.

Rinse the can off?

While they are free and easy with the plastic bags and straws, it's not so easy to find a napkin, and even harder to find a 7-11 faucet where that can be done.

[recom273]

Staff are "trained" to do a job, and if that includes placing things in bags, thats what they do, its not "their" decision, that comes from higher up and whoever is training them.

Maybe but it's tailored to the demands of the consumer.

I was in big C last week, I asked the checkout girl to stop putting goods in different bags, and I reduced the bag count by 50% by combining like goods.

She said that "farang are very good at this" and went on to describe that Thai people wouldn't want the moisture / condensation on a milk bottle making their yoghurt, already in a plastic container and wrapped in plastic, wet .. I asked her how something plastic could become "priak" when I would just take it home and wipe it with a cloth before putting away.

She agreed .. But said she used so many bags as customers demanded it.

It's upto us to refuse the bags.

[hkt83100]

In "my" Family Mart almost next door I take things home in the shopping basket and return it minutes later, after I stocked the stuff at home. I just had to ask when I did it first time, now I get a thumbs up from the staff every time. The 1 minute walk to return the basket does not hurt me or my belly.

[impulse]

They're so thin and cheap, it would take me around a year of stops in a 7-11 to collect a kg of plastic bags. Hardly an environmental tragedy considering I use the same amount of petroleum driving a few miles.

The plastic bags aren't the issue. It's the fact that I can walk 500 meters on a crowded street and not see a single waste bin to toss them. I deplore the local habit of just tossing them anywhere, but I can certainly understand why they'd be reluctant to carry a sugar/ketchup coated plastic bag all the way to the next bin.

It is part of an environmental tragedy. Everything in Thailand is put into these bags amounting to a huge amount. southeast Asia, India, and China are the largest per capita plastic abusers.

The plastic is an environmental issue!

The tragedy isn't the plastic used. That's just petroleum, and you used 1000x as much to fly to Thailand as you'd use in a year of eating at 7-11 for every meal (if you could survive that long on 7-11 food).

Not to mention, that plastic bottle from your drinking water probably weighs as much as 10 of the bags they put the bottle in.

The tragedy is in the poor disposal practices, which are not unique to those countries. Just more in your face because it costs money to actually bury or burn something to give the appearance that it's handled. SEA, India and China just have a whole different set of economic drivers. You get all the "environmental responsibility" your people are willing to pay for... In developing countries, they've got less $$$ to pay.

[circusman]

They're so thin and cheap, it would take me around a year of stops in a 7-11 to collect a kg of plastic bags. Hardly an environmental tragedy considering I use the same amount of petroleum driving a few miles.

The plastic bags aren't the issue. It's the fact that I can walk 500 meters on a crowded street and not see a single waste bin to toss them. I deplore the local habit of just tossing them anywhere, but I can certainly understand why they'd be reluctant to carry a sugar/ketchup coated plastic bag all the way to the next bin.

No bins means a job for someone to sweep the trash up.

[pchansmorn]

I don't understand how so many people are so Lazy, that they would rather complan than bring there own bags. I brought a bunch of bags from California, and I use them when ever I go shopping, I have many that are cooler bags perfert for that cold milk or butter, to carry home without it melting all over the place. also great for carrying your own wine or beer out to a restaurant.

[csabo]

"The island of plastic bags in the pacific is actually the size of Texas, or so the eco-zealots tell us."

Do you think there is an island of condoms out there too???

Edited December 10, 2015 by csabo

[Enoon]

All the OP has to do is take his own plastic bags, hemp sacks, or whatever he'd prefer, and tell the 7-11 staff to put his items in it.

In places like Australia, when you go to the bottle shop, they don't give out any plastic bags at all. If they have any spare, you might get a dirty old cardboard box, or you might have to carry the goods around with nothing to put them in. Add to that the sky rocketing cost of electricity, so as to subsidise all those unproductive wind farms, showers that emit tiny jets of water, half-flushing toilets, horrid fluorescent light bulbs, etc, etc.

I'm glad that the tree-hugging eco-nazis that rule over us in the west haven't got their way here, yet.

Careless people like you are the reason "Eco Nazis" are required in today's world.

Did you know that the largest percentage of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean comes from SE Asia?...and there is a huge island of it out there.

01 plastic.jpg

That's actually a photo of the debris caused by the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

True.

The island of plastic bags in the pacific is actually the size of Texas, or so the eco-zealots tell us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch.

Anyway, who cares, the Pacific is a big place, and the North Pacific Gyre, a rotating current of water, keeps all trash in a place where nobody ever goes.

Eco-obsessives get on my nerves - while they bang on to all of us about how frugal we should be, most of them fly around in planes, wilfully polluting the atmosphere with all those greenhouse gases. They should walk or cycle everywhere - bunch of hypocrites.

"nobody ever goes"

Except fish and marine mammals.

Which become contaminated/die.

[dbrenn]

All the OP has to do is take his own plastic bags, hemp sacks, or whatever he'd prefer, and tell the 7-11 staff to put his items in it.

In places like Australia, when you go to the bottle shop, they don't give out any plastic bags at all. If they have any spare, you might get a dirty old cardboard box, or you might have to carry the goods around with nothing to put them in. Add to that the sky rocketing cost of electricity, so as to subsidise all those unproductive wind farms, showers that emit tiny jets of water, half-flushing toilets, horrid fluorescent light bulbs, etc, etc.

I'm glad that the tree-hugging eco-nazis that rule over us in the west haven't got their way here, yet.

Careless people like you are the reason "Eco Nazis" are required in today's world.

Did you know that the largest percentage of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean comes from SE Asia?...and there is a huge island of it out there.

01 plastic.jpg

That's actually a photo of the debris caused by the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

True.

The island of plastic bags in the pacific is actually the size of Texas, or so the eco-zealots tell us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch.

Anyway, who cares, the Pacific is a big place, and the North Pacific Gyre, a rotating current of water, keeps all trash in a place where nobody ever goes.

Eco-obsessives get on my nerves - while they bang on to all of us about how frugal we should be, most of them fly around in planes, wilfully polluting the atmosphere with all those greenhouse gases. They should walk or cycle everywhere - bunch of hypocrites.

"nobody ever goes"

Except fish and marine mammals.

Which become contaminated/die.

Are you a vegetarian? If so, then I'll grant you your opinion. If not, then spare a thought for all the animals that had to die so that you could eat them ;-)

[dbrenn]

All the OP has to do is take his own plastic bags, hemp sacks, or whatever he'd prefer, and tell the 7-11 staff to put his items in it.

In places like Australia, when you go to the bottle shop, they don't give out any plastic bags at all. If they have any spare, you might get a dirty old cardboard box, or you might have to carry the goods around with nothing to put them in. Add to that the sky rocketing cost of electricity, so as to subsidise all those unproductive wind farms, showers that emit tiny jets of water, half-flushing toilets, horrid fluorescent light bulbs, etc, etc.

I'm glad that the tree-hugging eco-nazis that rule over us in the west haven't got their way here, yet.

Careless people like you are the reason "Eco Nazis" are required in today's world.

Did you know that the largest percentage of plastic garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean comes from SE Asia?...and there is a huge island of it out there.

01 plastic.jpg

That's actually a photo of the debris caused by the 2011 Japanese tsunami.

True.

The island of plastic bags in the pacific is actually the size of Texas, or so the eco-zealots tell us. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch.

Anyway, who cares, the Pacific is a big place, and the North Pacific Gyre, a rotating current of water, keeps all trash in a place where nobody ever goes.

Eco-obsessives get on my nerves - while they bang on to all of us about how frugal we should be, most of them fly around in planes, wilfully polluting the atmosphere with all those greenhouse gases. They should walk or cycle everywhere - bunch of hypocrites.

De Nile....big river in Egypt. Yeah, who cares?

Last time I tried to walk from Bangkok to Vancouver, I realized it may take too long.

You can fly but still be environmentally aware. Do you realize airline fuel efficiency has made leaps and bounds to be better over the years?

Do you wear your blinkers on only at night or all the time?

Flying from from Bangkok to Vancouver consumes around 150 tonnes of fuel.

That's environmentally friendly, as you say.

[impulse]

They're so thin and cheap, it would take me around a year of stops in a 7-11 to collect a kg of plastic bags. Hardly an environmental tragedy considering I use the same amount of petroleum driving a few miles.

The plastic bags aren't the issue. It's the fact that I can walk 500 meters on a crowded street and not see a single waste bin to toss them. I deplore the local habit of just tossing them anywhere, but I can certainly understand why they'd be reluctant to carry a sugar/ketchup coated plastic bag all the way to the next bin.

No bins means a job for someone to sweep the trash up.

In China, my coworkers explained that's a real phenomena called the "iron rice bowl". (iron may not be the best translation) I also used to marvel at ladies sweeping perfectly clean streets for hours- because that was their job. (On other days, they'd sweep up huge piles of leaves or trash from the same street)

It wouldn't surprise me that there's a little of that Chinese methodology here in Thailand...

[duanebigsby]

They're so thin and cheap, it would take me around a year of stops in a 7-11 to collect a kg of plastic bags. Hardly an environmental tragedy considering I use the same amount of petroleum driving a few miles.

The plastic bags aren't the issue. It's the fact that I can walk 500 meters on a crowded street and not see a single waste bin to toss them. I deplore the local habit of just tossing them anywhere, but I can certainly understand why they'd be reluctant to carry a sugar/ketchup coated plastic bag all the way to the next bin.

It is part of an environmental tragedy. Everything in Thailand is put into these bags amounting to a huge amount. southeast Asia, India, and China are the largest per capita plastic abusers.

The plastic is an environmental issue!

The tragedy isn't the plastic used. That's just petroleum, and you used 1000x as much to fly to Thailand as you'd use in a year of eating at 7-11 for every meal (if you could survive that long on 7-11 food).

Not to mention, that plastic bottle from your drinking water probably weighs as much as 10 of the bags they put the bottle in.

The tragedy is in the poor disposal practices, which are not unique to those countries. Just more in your face because it costs money to actually bury or burn something to give the appearance that it's handled. SEA, India and China just have a whole different set of economic drivers. You get all the "environmental responsibility" your people are willing to pay for... In developing countries, they've got less $$$ to pay.

I realize my flight over here caused pollution.

Are you suggesting everyone stop flying? that is something we don't have control over but the economics of us demanding lower airfares is making a positive change into the fuel economies of airlines.

You are completely right that it's the disposal of the bags that is the biggest concern. Which is something as consumers, we do have control over. We can use less.

What can we do personally? use less bags and recycle best we can. Same reason I don't buy bottled water.

[MaeJoMTB]

Straws and plastic bags, I can use all I get later at home.

Waste bin liners, bread proving, fridge storage, sweaty cycling clothes in ruck, etc.

Edited December 10, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[SoiBiker]

They're so thin and cheap, it would take me around a year of stops in a 7-11 to collect a kg of plastic bags. Hardly an environmental tragedy considering I use the same amount of petroleum driving a few miles.

The plastic bags aren't the issue. It's the fact that I can walk 500 meters on a crowded street and not see a single waste bin to toss them. I deplore the local habit of just tossing them anywhere, but I can certainly understand why they'd be reluctant to carry a sugar/ketchup coated plastic bag all the way to the next bin.

It is part of an environmental tragedy. Everything in Thailand is put into these bags amounting to a huge amount. southeast Asia, India, and China are the largest per capita plastic abusers.

The plastic is an environmental issue!

The tragedy isn't the plastic used. That's just petroleum, and you used 1000x as much to fly to Thailand as you'd use in a year of eating at 7-11 for every meal (if you could survive that long on 7-11 food).

Not to mention, that plastic bottle from your drinking water probably weighs as much as 10 of the bags they put the bottle in.

The tragedy is in the poor disposal practices, which are not unique to those countries. Just more in your face because it costs money to actually bury or burn something to give the appearance that it's handled. SEA, India and China just have a whole different set of economic drivers. You get all the "environmental responsibility" your people are willing to pay for... In developing countries, they've got less $$$ to pay.

I realize my flight over here caused pollution.

Are you suggesting everyone stop flying? that is something we don't have control over...

Nobody is forcing us to fly. It's our choice to do so, surely?

[Jiggo]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

[stereolab]

Plus a bunch of plastic straws with every bottle of milk or can of beer.

Plastic spoons with every yoghurt.

Trying to "Wave" every sandwich you buy.

just as well they do not sell coleslaw!

[impulse]

The tragedy is in the poor disposal practices, which are not unique to those countries. Just more in your face because it costs money to actually bury or burn something to give the appearance that it's handled. SEA, India and China just have a whole different set of economic drivers. You get all the "environmental responsibility" your people are willing to pay for... In developing countries, they've got less $$$ to pay.

I realize my flight over here caused pollution.

Are you suggesting everyone stop flying? that is something we don't have control over but the economics of us demanding lower airfares is making a positive change into the fuel economies of airlines.

You are completely right that it's the disposal of the bags that is the biggest concern. Which is something as consumers, we do have control over. We can use less.

What can we do personally? use less bags and recycle best we can. Same reason I don't buy bottled water.

Nah, I fly too. And drive. I'm just suggesting putting things into perspective and reserving the word tragedy for topics of genuine, well, tragedy. I buy bottled water, too. And when I toss the empties into the apartment trash, someone separates them out, leading me to believe they're properly recycled, and someone is happy I'm tossing them.

While I'm ranting, I'd also suggest that next time someone wants to do a rant on plastic bags, they just bump one of the dozens of other plastic bag rant threads from this year alone. There's some good stuff back in the vault...

Edited December 10, 2015 by impulse

[phuketjock]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

All that is working in Uk is that the supermarket chains already obscene profits are boosted by the revenue from plastic bags

Well done.............................

What would work is if these profit hungry supermarkets gave you money back for every one of their plastic bags you returned

on your next vist, wouldn't see plastic bags littering the roads/pavements then, BUT not profitable is it, so not going to happen

is it?

What is happening now is that the supermarkets no longer have to pay for the bags and are in fact making money from you and

me for using them, they are more than happy to supply them at a profit.

Have to agree with you Impulse this plastic bag nonsense pops up every few weeks, boring.

Edited December 10, 2015 by phuketjock

[berybert]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

All that is working in Uk is that the supermarket chains already obscene profits are boosted by the revenue from plastic bags

Well done.............................

Just so happens all the money raised by the supermarkets in the UK for selling plastic bags is going to charity.

[mulder12345]

I just say, "no bag" and put it in my backpack. If i don't have my backpack, i get a bag.

[phuketjock]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

All that is working in Uk is that the supermarket chains already obscene profits are boosted by the revenue from plastic bags

Well done.............................

Just so happens all the money raised by the supermarkets in the UK for selling plastic bags is going to charity.

Yeah sure, who checks?

[MaeJoMTB]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

Yes, a classic British fashion statement ........

Edited December 10, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[duanebigsby]

All the OP has to do is take his own plastic bags, hemp sacks, or whatever he'd prefer, and tell the 7-11 staff to put his items in it.

In places like Australia, when you go to the bottle shop, they don't give out any plastic bags at all. If they have any spare, you might get a dirty old cardboard box, or you might have to carry the goods around with nothing to put them in. Add to that the sky rocketing cost of electricity, so as to subsidise all those unproductive wind farms, showers that emit tiny jets of water, half-flushing toilets, horrid fluorescent light bulbs, etc, etc.

I'm glad that the tree-hugging eco-nazis that rule over us in the west haven't got their way here, yet.

Yeah, I hate all those people trying to do something to improve the environment.

Bloody eco nazis thinking we could actually make the world a better place, I hope you were being facetious.

[berybert]

Charge for them (Plastic Bags) and buy a shopping bag.....wait, did'nt we do that 20 years ago....... it's working in the UK.....

All that is working in Uk is that the supermarket chains already obscene profits are boosted by the revenue from plastic bags

Well done.............................

Just so happens all the money raised by the supermarkets in the UK for selling plastic bags is going to charity.

Yeah sure, who checks?

The plastic bag supermarket 5p charity commission, who else would you expect ?

[elgordo38]

OP.....time for some empirical testing....dress up in a plastic bag costume and go into the store and see if they try to put you in another plastic bag......it's the only way to know for sure....

Sounds like a good idea you could make a round of all the 7/11 stores. Sadly they would laugh at the idea and retain the status quo. Even if you wore a sign around your neck stating "no more plastic bags" in 10 languages it would have little bearing on things. The robots are not coming they are already here. Programmers wanted!!

Edited December 10, 2015 by elgordo38

[ravip]

One reason I've heard is b/c back in the day everything was wrapped in banana leaves, so Thais think every package is biodegradable. But more likely than that is they're just largely uneducated on the matter.

If I dont need a bag, I just tell the salesperson just that.

Not only in Thailand, but anywhere in the planet I happen to shop at.

And... I ain't educated even, Sir.

[Bezpoleznyak]

I just say, "no bag" and put it in my backpack. If i don't have my backpack, i get a bag.

But why on Earth would I say "no bag" when I'm buying a 250 ml juice? Who needs a bag for a 250 ml juice? The size of the bag is the same as the size of the juice! It's bunk! They put a 10 bath sun-flower kernels in a bag! EVERYTHING! I don't need a bag for that at all! Can't they figure out that's ridiculous? What will I do with that tiny bag?

Edited December 10, 2015 by Bezpoleznyak