Litter everywhere - Doi Suthep left in a mess as volunteers save the day

[gemguy]

Well...a number of thing to be considered

It is the habit of people to discard their waste and rubbish and litter where ever convenient....everywhere in the world.

That being the case then the relevant authorities have to spend the money and the effort to educate the people to gather their trash and deposit the trash where it can be collected and further dealt with by the relevant government entities that deal with waste and trash.

That means there has to be trash cans and trash bins and trash collecting services in abundance ..everywhere .....provided for the people because, if not, then they will continue to discard their trash where ever convenient to do so.

There has to be fines levied upon those that thoughtlessly discard their waste where ever they go.

Also they have to be educated from an early age that there is a need to gather your personal trash and place it where it can be collect and participate in the effort needed to deal with the problems concerning trash while everyone is required to participate.

In other countries the populace has, over the decades, eventually conformed to the rules and regulations and laws while everyone involved polices themselves while also policing others and backed up by law enforcement.

With out that and more...the people will keep on mindlessly throwing their garbage and trash anywhere they see others doing the same.

Cheers

[jak2002003]

I think the problem is getting worse.. not better.

When I first lived here there was a lot less litter about.

The last few year in this village have see a huge increase in litter... now its every where.

I see people buying food from the market.. eating it as they drive away in the car or on their bike.. then just throwing the plastic bags, cans, polystyrene, plastic bottoles onto the street.

There has also been a huge increases in dumping old household appliances, building materials and other large items... with one valley near my home having huge hills of the stuff... and at the river near me I have seen trucks and lorries stop late at night and tip their loads of rubbish down the bank into the river!!!

What upsets me the most is when the temple has a festival or party... and they preach about taking care of each other and the respect for life and doing good. Then when everyone goes home there is huge amounts of lttter everywhere.. and no one ever cleans it up!

They used to teach the Thai children at school about not dropping litter... and there were the old 'teacher Pye Linn' books where the class asked about why people dropped litter at the market and made a mess... and the teacher takess the class to clean the place up to make it nice too look at for everyone. But they no longer teach there old fashioned stories any more.

Edited May 21, 2016 by jak2002003

[KhonKaenKowboy]

they should learn Math, too. 50 tons? 50,000 Kg of trash for 10,000 people? Maybe five tons, and that is still too much.

[Bantex]

Water in reusable water flasks , maybe the generous "companies" would like to hand those out instead.

This a great idea except for one small flaw, this is Thais were talking about, they would use the reusable flasks a few times without washing them and eventually dumb them when they get dirty.

We have brought up our children to use bins and if none available to keep their rubbish until they come to a bin. To this end, when we go out we always take a few plastic bags with us for the rubbish and keep bags in the car.

My Thai wife's young brother just drops rubbish where he stands or sits even in their house, he did it recently in my house during a kids birthday party even though he was 2 feet from a bin, he refused to lift the rubbish and I put him out of the house, he missed out on all of the fun and treats but the rest of the cousins all used the bin.

Schools should take the children around the village collecting rubbish and they will soon start using bins as having to lift other people's rubbish will deter them, this could condition them through adulthood.

[sawadee1947]

pigs in pig's country

Actually that is completely untrue.

Pigs are one of the cleanest animals around but what makes them dirty are the lazy owners who can't be bothered to keep them clean.

When you see them wallowing in the mud it is their way of cooling down and keeping cool.

Did you know that like humans, pigs can get sun burnt and that they can also get heat stroke and die if it is too hot.

VERY interesting.......where YOU got so many sun burnts in these rainy days BTW? Or was it too much Leo....?

[KhonKaenKowboy]

I think the problem in CM will get worse and then finally get better, kind of good news and bad news, but it is starting to reach critical mass. My observation is based on visiting Bangkok over an 18 year period. Specifically, Sukhumvit, which I have visited the most times and am most familiar. It seems like the garbage started to really pile up, and the rats started getting everywhere. I'm thinking about 10 years ago, they started taking control of the garbage. Perhaps, someone here can chime in with more details. I spent three days there last week, and DID NOT SEE ONE RAT! I live by CMU and it is very densely populated. I don't think I could walk 200m to the 7-11 without seeing one. There is a whole strip of sit-down restaurants that I won't go to, because of their rodent problems. In that regard, the street vendors are cleaner; there is almost no place for them to hide and nest. There is more litter within 100 m of my building than within 2 miles of my parents house in the DC area of five million people. I used to have 13 rai, and there was not one gum wrapper, bottle cap, scrap of paper on the entire property. Policing the property was part of my exercise routine. Once it gets cleaned up, it's easy, and people are so much less likely to litter, when there is no other litter present.

[cmth]

I once saw a woman walking a chihuahua until I realized it was a rat scurrying past her.

[gandalf12]

They want to get littering into the ASEAN Games as the Thais train very hard from an early age...........Its a long handed down National Pastime.

Wouldn't be fair, they would win Gold, Silver and Bronze

[Happy Grumpy]

Why are most Thais litter louts.

They want/need the sense of ego that someone else, someone much lower than them, is there, moving their trash etc. for them.

Besides, dumping their rubbish doesn't disadvantage themselves, in fact it advantages them because it saves them disposing of it properly.....

Disadvantaging oneself for the advantage of others.... Not the Thai's strongest suit.

[puukao]

mai bpen rai....have farangs clean up mess and/or tax their lodging to help pay for clean up

i blame hollywood!!!!!

don't just post about it.....go clean it up!!!!

i would, but i'm currently saving 100 people from herd of elephants

[Aussie69]

Some ppl are just so lazy & thoughtless. It's all about what is most convenient for ME at this particular moment

[gandalf12]

I reckon their attitude has a lot to do with the class system they have here. Every Thai with some exceptions believe they are too good to pick up litter and that the task falls on people at the bottom of the class system.

[KhonKaenKowboy]

I think a lot of us farang would go on litter patrols, just for something constructive and helpful to do, but it would be in clear violation of our visa terms. Imagine a front page photo of a couple of farangs, with 12 BiB looking on, handcuffed and pointing to a bag of garbage on the evidence table.

[Aussie69]

I reckon their attitude has a lot to do with the class system they have here. Every Thai with some exceptions believe they are too good to pick up litter and that the task falls on people at the bottom of the class system.

I never thought of it that way