Welcome to paradise - sorry about the rubbish!

[webfact]

Welcome to paradise - sorry about the rubbish!

 

Picture: Daily News

 

SAMUI: -- A 500 meter stretch of Chaweng Beach in Samui is covered in litter after recent rains and high waves.

 

The deputy local district chief blamed people who threw litter in the neighborhood klongs on the mainland. These canals carried the litter out to sea and then it was blown back to the beach, said Meunsin Phunsawat, reports Daily News.

 

He implored locals as well as fishermen on boats to stop throwing litter that was damaging the image of the tourist beach.

 

Pictures of the filth were posted online by Thanchanok Chuayjit on the Ruam Pon Ton Samui Facebook page. It contained the question:

 

"What do you think of these pictures?"

 

Picture: Daily News

 

Most netizens were in no doubt that something needed to be done to clean up the beach.

 

Meanwhile Daily News online reporters who went to check out the filth noted that it was not just litter that was fouling up the tourist beach - they said that the water was black and the stench was awful.

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-12-19

[ChrisY1]

So.....what's the issue?

All beaches are similar......

[Elkski]

Biggest disappointment of my visit.   I tell everyone about the trash in my first moment or two of my Thailand impression.    Trash everywhere including the beaches, roadsides, yards, just unimaginable and the scuba diving sucks. 

[Damaz6052]

18 minutes ago, Elkski said:

Biggest disappointment of my visit.   I tell everyone about the trash in my first moment or two of my Thailand impression.    Trash everywhere including the beaches, roadsides, yards, just unimaginable and the scuba diving sucks. 

 

Sad but true.

[GeorgeCross]

thailand the "10 yard car" of tropical paradises 

 

 

[goferman]

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He implored locals as well as fishermen on boats to stop throwing litter that was damaging the image of the tourist beach.

 

What about the ecosystem? There's a serious problem with garbage in our oceans or is that not worthy of consideration?

[zaZa9]

They can collect it all and  take it inland  and then dump it on the mountains of garbage  next to the incinerator  that officials have not repaired or maintained for years ...

Corruption , blame , and neglect ...

[khunPer]

What's the problem..? It look like that every year after the monsoon storm; or rather after every storm. In a few days, or a week, it's normally all cleared. And yes, it will help a lot if people – and that unfortunately also include some tourists – will stop just throwing their garbage, but take it with them to proper disposal bins.

 

The plot-owners and various resorts normally take care of their own beach-front – a clean nice beach is the resort's source of income – and often volunteers from a local football team, or called together by the Head-of-Village, will come a help cleaning the beach, if it's very bad. Depending of the wind and wave direction, it can be worse at some beaches, but normally all have some level of debris, both pure garbage, but also from coconut-palms growing by the beaches; and if it's very strong monsoon-storms some beach-front restaurant will also be taken by the monsoon and end up as garbage. This year's storm last week was not bad at the northern coasts, but I did see something looking like a restaurant floating by in the waves...

 

In "old time" – and that's not that man years ago – many resorts simply closed from end of October and until Xmas tourists arrived; it's "no season" at Samui when the monsoon comes, so if you come anyway and walk the beach, as soon as it walk-able right after a storm, you will be extremely disappointed about "Paradise"...

 

As it's every year – and some years more than once – I stopped taking photos every time, but a few years ago, the day after a heavy monsoon calmed down, I was lucky to be able to snap some photos, before the immediately beach clean-up team had it all cleared...

 

Instant monsoon-cleaning of the beach in front of 5-star Santibury Resort at Maenam Beach, 2010.

 

Cleaning the beach and burning debris in front of Lolita Bungalow at Maenam Beach, 2010

 

Lolita Bungalow (front) and Santibury Resort (behind) clean-up-teams after monsoon in 2011.

 

In 2011 Santibury ended up with a machine to get all cleared, debris dig down, and sand leveled.

 

After few days with calm weather, and the beaches in front of hotels and resorts are again like "Paradise"...

[Ostseefoto]

This is the result of Mass tourism. All tourists should help to collect and sort the garbage. For a clean enviroment.

[Thechook]

Thai beaches are disgusting and there is no way I would swim in the disgusting polluted waters.

[toenail]

7 hours ago, Ostseefoto said:

This is the result of Mass tourism. All tourists should help to collect and sort the garbage. For a clean enviroment.

Why should tourists from developed countries spend their holiday cleaning up after the Thais? I observe daily Thais leaving their foam or plastic bag food containers where they have finished eating outside including empty bottles (too lazy to place it somewhere in s bin). --A huge government marketing campaign & education in Thai schools ( the future adults of Thailand)  about not littering & caring about the environment. --For some reason Buddhism in Thailand does not connect to respecting the environment.

[Rimbuman]

9 hours ago, zaZa9 said:

They can collect it all and  take it inland  and then dump it on the mountains of garbage  next to the incinerator  that officials have not repaired or maintained for years ...

Corruption , blame , and neglect ...

That would be just too logical to do.

[DinoSabanovic]

There is no money in it so why should they clean? Thai logic no?

[jesimps]

7 hours ago, Ostseefoto said:

This is the result of Mass tourism. All tourists should help to collect and sort the garbage. For a clean enviroment.

I see you're a newbie and it shows in your post. Tourists are normally excellent at disposing of their rubbish, either binning it or taking it away with them. It's the Thai's themselves that litter the place, they come to the beaches with everything, including the kitchen sink and just leave all their garbage laying around when they leave. Lots are sensible enough to bag it, but then just dump it on the ground when the bins are full, which seems to be most of the time, instead of taking it home with them.

 

Also, as said in the original article, people living up the creeks just throw their rubbish into the water and during rainstorms it all washes down to the beaches.

 

There also seems to be no control on illegal dumping, many scenic areas are ruined by mountains of building and household rubbish.

 

In my opinion, it's caused by lack of deterrent. If there was a 20,000 baht fine for littering, and it was enforced, then there's be a lot less of it. Money's number one in Thailand and if the locals were to be hit in their pocket, then I'm sure there'd be a dramatic improvement.

 

Cue the Thai-bashing policemen who'll say that the farang are as guilty as the locals.

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by jesimps

[Loeilad]

Plastic is the sea is a worldwide problem - it isn't just generated by the beach you are one it comes from all over the world. it is then shifted around by wind, tides and the great currents of the oceans.

 

Many people don't realise that every time they eat seafood they are also ingesting micro plastics that have come through the food chain.

 

Of course you ca tackle the problem to some degree locally.

you ca clean beaches - but this isn't solving the problem, it is just sweeping it under the carpet.....where do you put the stuff you've cleaned? Into the over filled over stressed garbage facilities that eventually end up dumping a lot of it into the sea - and then where does it go?

 

Another regional problem is enforcement - there ae thousands of ships plying the seas looking for places to dispose of their garbage - and this costs - so if you find an area where you can dump and get away with it, so much the better......of course the seas around S.E. Asia are full of ships, but also full of corruption and a lack of agencies set up to pursue these polluters.

 

Finally - it is very unpleasant to see garbage floating in the sea and on a beach, but remember a lot of the most serious pollution is invisible - it can be in land se or air - only a chemical  or detailed analysis of the water will reveal the most sinister pollutants - and can you rely on the Thai authorities to do this???

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bimmerbob]

3 hours ago, Thechook said:

Thai beaches are disgusting and there is no way I would swim in the disgusting polluted waters.

 

There goes our plan to visit Thailand!

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by bimmerbob
spelling error

[Loeilad]

5 minutes ago, DinoSabanovic said:

There is no money in it so why should they clean? Thai logic no?

Of course there is money in it! If the beaches are dirty the customers will go elsewhere..

[ThaiTrav]

11 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

So.....what's the issue?

All beaches are similar......

Beeuutiffulll!!  We love our beaches like this!! Nutting wong!

[ThaiTrav]

11 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

So.....what's the issue?

All beaches are similar......

"Bins!!!! <deleted> r day?  our beach work jes fine!

[samsensam]

 

thankfully i did the thai beach thing in the mid 1990s when samui could truly be described as paradise. went back three years ago and couldnt wait to leave. awful place.

 

 

[ThaiTrav]

8 minutes ago, Loeilad said:

Plastic is the sea is a worldwide problem - it isn't just generated by the beach you are one it comes from all over the world. it is then shifted around by wind, tides and the great currents of the oceans.

 

Many people don't realise that every time they eat seafood they are also ingesting micro plastics that have come through the food chain.

 

Of course you ca tackle the problem to some degree locally.

you ca clean beaches - but this isn't solving the problem, it is just sweeping it under the carpet.....where do you put the stuff you've cleaned? Into the over filled over stressed garbage facilities that eventually end up dumping a lot of it into the sea - and then where does it go?

 

Another regional problem is enforcement - there ae thousands of ships plying the seas looking for places to dispose of their garbage - and this costs - so if you find an area where you can dump and get away with it, so much the better......of course the seas around S.E. Asia are full of ships, but also full of corruption and a lack of agencies set up to pursue these polluters.

 

Finally - it is very unpleasant to see garbage floating in the sea and on a beach, but remember a lot of the most serious pollution is invisible - it can be in land se or air - only a chemical  or detailed analysis of the water will reveal the most sinister pollutants - and can you rely on the Thai authorities to do this???

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 minutes ago, Loeilad said:

Plastic is the sea is a worldwide problem - it isn't just generated by the beach you are one it comes from all over the world. it is then shifted around by wind, tides and the great currents of the oceans.

 

Many people don't realise that every time they eat seafood they are also ingesting micro plastics that have come through the food chain.

 

Of course you ca tackle the problem to some degree locally.

you ca clean beaches - but this isn't solving the problem, it is just sweeping it under the carpet.....where do you put the stuff you've cleaned? Into the over filled over stressed garbage facilities that eventually end up dumping a lot of it into the sea - and then where does it go?

 

Another regional problem is enforcement - there ae thousands of ships plying the seas looking for places to dispose of their garbage - and this costs - so if you find an area where you can dump and get away with it, so much the better......of course the seas around S.E. Asia are full of ships, but also full of corruption and a lack of agencies set up to pursue these polluters.

 

Finally - it is very unpleasant to see garbage floating in the sea and on a beach, but remember a lot of the most serious pollution is invisible - it can be in land se or air - only a chemical  or detailed analysis of the water will reveal the most sinister pollutants - and can you rely on the Thai authorities to do this???

 

 

 

 

 

 

U doen understand silly farang we luvvvv it like dis!!

[Loeilad]

May I suggest that next time you are on the beach you take some time to examine the rubbish - it's quite fascinating......firstly you nature of the rubbish will give you some idea of what caused it - lots of vegetation etc is usually run-off from the land after a storm.

Plastics are the big giveaway though as they often retain their labels - e.g language and country of origin -  this isn't dropped by tourists it has often come thousands of miles across seas or been dumped illegally in these waters.

other rubbish is overflow from the inefficient disposal of rubbish particularly on islands.

 

 

Think about what happens is you conscientiously put your garbage in the bin (why did you accept all that packaging in the first place??)

 

the bins ae then collected - usually too infrequently by the local rubbish collector - the operatives mange to lose/spill quite a bit which then gets blow about again.

 

the rubbish on many islands is take to incinerators - these don't work so it is then dumped in landfill which allows even more rubbish to escape at get blown back into the general environment - then water draining through the land fills seeps back into the water table or into the sea and you can swim in it....NICE!

 

So don't be surprised if while you are swimming something brushes against your body and it turns out to be the ice cream wrapper you carefully placed in a bin 5 days ago.

 

[notmyself]

13 minutes ago, jesimps said:

Also, as said in the original article, people living up the creeks just throw their rubbish into the water and during rainstorms it all washes down to the beaches.

 

 

 

The deputy local district chief blamed people who threw litter in the neighborhood klongs on the mainland. These canals carried the litter out to sea and then it was blown back to the beach, said Meunsin Phunsawat, reports

Daily News.

 

Many of the farangs who are here for various reasons do in fact recycle because it is perfectly normal for them to do so. After doing it for 20+ years you don't even think not to do so. I would go so far as to say that the willingness of farangs to recycle is a detriment.

[Bsd]

15 minutes ago, jesimps said:

I see you're a newbie and it shows in your post. Tourists are normally excellent at disposing of their rubbish, either binning it or taking it away with them. It's the Thai's themselves that litter the place, they come to the beaches with everything, including the kitchen sink and just leave all their garbage laying around when they leave. Lots are sensible enough to bag it, but then just dump it on the ground when the bins are full, which seems to be most of the time, instead of taking it home with them.

 

...

 

Cue the Thai-bashing policemen who'll say that the farang are as guilty as the locals.

 

I am not going to argue with you that Thais are bad with rubbish, fishermen are the worst.  The amount of rubbish the washes up on the beach that could only have come from fishing boats is incredible, the amount that they must be spending to replace all that lost equipment makes you wonder how they are profitable.

 

However tourists are awful with rubbish as well, in particular cigarette butts which just get left on that nice clean white beach that they flew half way around the world to visit.  My wife once asked some Swiss tourists who were throwing rubbish out of the back of a moving songteaw 1.  Would you do that at home? and 2.  What lesson are you teaching your children?  They didn't care. 

 

Having to walk 2 metres out of you way to place something in the bin? no that is too hard for some tourists, easier just to throw it over the wall.

 

Sorry for the rant but having to clean up after people teaches you that no one has any manners.

[Elkski]

Not many trash bins that I saw.  seems like as long as you put your leftover plastic from lunch near a post its all ok?   I was shocked at all the trash floating down the Chao Phraya river when I took the boat ride to some Wat near the grand palace.   I got a real bad case of folicolitus after 3 hours of snorkling on Koh Sichang

[Blackheart1916]

18 minutes ago, bimmerbob said:

There goes our plan to visit Thailand!

 

Don't let it put you off, it's not that bad. It will be cleaned up, and Chaweng beach is not the only one in the country. I am in Lamai, nicer in my opinion, but there are beaches all over the place. The island I would avoid is Koh Larn, went there for the first (and last) time this year, I am convinced the island is made from plastic bottles with a few buckets of sand thrown on top.

[Get Real]

As usual we have the bright Netizens, that all were in no doubt that the beach had to be cleaned up. Yep! That´s right, and even my 4 year old daugther also draw the same conclusion. Yippie! There´s a bright future ahead for the world when paople really can be so unimaginable smart. LOL

[notmyself]

7 minutes ago, Elkski said:

Not many trash bins that I saw.

 

You mean a public trash bin?

[papa al]

7 hours ago, Ostseefoto said:

This is the result of Mass tourism. All tourists should help to collect and sort the garbage. For a clean enviroment.

Illegal for tourists to work.

[heybuz]

i have not seen a thai beach that does not have rubbish, and as far as beaches go there not much