Welcome to paradise - sorry about the rubbish!

[daveAustin]

I blame the tourists and any foreigner on the island. Thai people do not litter! 

[denis911]

If the local authority does not clean these beaches (as they should), then very town or beach should have what we have here in Hua Hin. "The Trash Heroes": a dedicated group of mixed race (Thai & Farang) volunteers, that do a truly amazing clean up job every Sunday. As you can see below they cleared about 160kg last weekend. On their behalf, any other volunteers that wish to take part, go to "Trash Hero Hua Hin" on F/B to see where the next clean up takes place. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

วันนี้ เราไปเก็บขยะที่ริมทางเดินหน้าวัดหัวหิน หลังจากคราวที่แล้วเก็บไปเยอะพอสมควร แต่ก็ยังไม่หมด วันนี้ไปอีกครั้ง เคลียร์จนเกือบหมด ขอเพียงไม่มีทิ้งเพิ่ม เก็บอีกครั้งก็น่าจะเรียบร้อย วันนี้อาสาสมัครจากไทย, สวีเดน, อเมริกา, เนเธอร์แลนด์, สวิสเซอร์แลนด์, เดนมาร์ก และเกาหลี จำนวน 22 คน เก็บขยะได้กว่า 160 กก. ขอบคุณอาสาสมัครทุกท่าน รวมทั้งน้อง ๆ นักศึกษาจากมหาวิทยาลัยนานาชาติแสตมฟอร์ดด้วยค่ะ เจอกันอีกครั้งวันอาทิตย์หน้า เวลาเดิมจ้า!

Today we head to cleanup the footpath in front of Hua Hin temple again. We got help by student from Stamford International University and volunteers from Thailand, Sweden, America, Netherland, Switzerland, Denmark and Korean! 22 people collected 160 kg. of trash. If you walk pass that area with trash please keep it until you see the trash bin or take it home with you. Thank you and see you again next Sunday!

 

[smew]

Deplorable issue, not only beaches mainland places piles of trash as well. People here have no concept of cleanliness outside of their own yard area. Filth carried by run off rain water destroys tourism in the long run. Who wants to come back to a filthy beach?

All it would take is some firm governmental punitive actions seriously and systematically enforced backed-up with strong message from HM the king

[Xonax]

55 minutes ago, Loeilad said:

Garbage disposal needs paying for - paying for it means taxes.

 

It is good to check out the Swedish model for this - some reports exaggerate the whole process but the reality is that countries like Sweden are getting more and more of their energy needs by burning rubbish. Installation is costly but the end results pay for themselves over time and of course the spin-off is good for tourism and other industries that rely on a clean environment.

Countries like Denmark import garbage from other countries and transforms it to energy.  Clean and safe it is.

[Surasak]

2 hours ago, samsensam said:

 

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.

 

 

Quite agree. Phuket used to be a very nice place to visit years ago. I have no intention of visiting again after my last, 2 years ago. I can remember Patong as a small fishing village with just a few hotels and tourists, as was Hua Hin. Both spoilt beyond redemption due mainly to greed. Why? No idea of town and country planning or seeing beyond today.

[heybuz]

1 hour ago, Siamfan said:

Something that needs to be added-  about 90 percent of the plastic bottles washed on shore are - what a surprise- Vietnamese and Chinese origin... you can clearly see non-Thai language on the stickers or prints on the bottles and cans...  the wind and currents bring it into the gulf....so its NOT only from Thais that dump stuff in Klongs - and not at all from Tourists on the beach... A lot of the small (energy drinks) glass bottles and light bulbs ( to attract squid...) however are dumped from the fishing boats on sea at night... that is really a shame that should and could be directly addressed... Plastic at least doesn't hurt somebody, but broken glass on a sand beach in a tourist destination is a serious problem !

plastic hurts all of us ,plastic bags ingested by wild life is the biggest killer of turtles, also those plastic bags thais get there food in are not food grade and leach poisons into the food, over time probably worse than smoking

[SunsetT]

..........And please please do something to cut down on the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of plastic used by Thai sellers. Plastic is choking our Oceans and destroying sea life and contributing to the decimation of fish stocks.

[NoshowJones]

11 hours ago, khunPer said:

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"...

"but take it with them to proper disposal bins".

Disposal bins in Thailand?? Very rare indeed, except maybe for most (not all) conveinence stores.

[zaZa9]

2 hours ago, Bsd said:

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.

 

I agree with the first paragraph - fisherman are by far the worst offenders here in Phuket.

I walk  or swim the beach everyday pretty much , including  Lo Low Season , when their simply arent any tourists here.

The worst type of rubbish is home made floats utilizing old styrofoam lashed to bamboo and old plastic bottles. Sometimes huge chunks of styrofoam , all bleeding little balls. And 10 baht plastic floats that have shattered. Then little brown bottles and ice bags . And huge plies of nylon rope and fishing line and bits of net. And plastic bottles filled with what smells like urine ! Lots of giant light bulbs and fluros to , clearly from 'squidders' and fishing boats.

Nothing from tourists or even land lubbers there.

Of course the storms do bring to the surface the half submerged jetsam of the previous tourist season as well...

But if I take note of any print , its overwhelmingly  in Thai.

 

The answer to the plastics longevity issue  surely  requires a global solution ... changing on a world scale  the chemical  composition of 'disposable' products that never go away ,  and wiping out the type of  plastics that  we have now . If its not done soon there is no helping the world...

 

[The man from udon]

10 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.

Yes spend £1,000s of pounds to come to samui and clean up our beaches because 99% of Thais are too lazy to sort out their rubbish.in fact while your staying here why don't you clean your own rooms and pop down the kitchen and do the dishes..tourist come for a holiday not to clean up someone else's problem.this is all to do with the local government not doing sweet f.a....i once spent 4 hours cleaning up on nai harn beach after a storm and collected 2 pick up loads.the 3 life guards sat there all this time watching and probably thinking...you mug..

[DekDaeng]

1 hour ago, johnhw said:

Only on TV would you find such overwhelming, stuning,  selective, tunnel-visioned, hypocritical  denial represented by a Westerner calling people here slobs and pigs for their environmental pollution.

Goes for the majority, tho.

[NoshowJones]

There are outdoor markets everywhere in Thailand, and not once in 11 years have I ever seen a trash disposal bin at any of them.

[TSF]

it's all a matter of educating the public and introducing stiff fines for littering. I can remember beaches in Australia back in the 1960s, when I was a kid. People used to have beach parties and lit bonfires, get drunk at the beach and leave broken beer bottles behind, plus loads of other trash. Then there were anti-litter campaigns and ads on TV, plus beach inspectors and fines for littering, so it all stopped. 

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, maddermax said:

If you watch the Thais around town you can see that they have no pride in their country as they drop rubbish anywhere and everywhere.  Some years ago the UK Government had a campaign, telling people to 'Have pride in your country' and 'take your rubbish home' which were very successful.  A similar scheme here would be very timely.

Some Thai people cannot even walk through a market, but ride their motorbikes through it because they are too lazy to park their bikes.

So what makes anyone think that they will walk even a short distance to a rubbish bin?

[louse1953]

3 hours ago, Bsd said:

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.

I would not call my self a Thai basher but they are by far the worst polluters in Thailand.Of course there are some dirty tourists but not many.Cigarette smokers are in a class of their own,filthy people.How hard is it to carry a tin around with you and put the butt in there.Too hard,obviously.They don't care about their own lungs or the enviroment.

[louse1953]

3 hours ago, Elkski said:

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

You should look under the houses that are on the riverfront,pure filth.Plastic and poly just thrown out the window.You can't even see the river,and kids swim in it!!!The toilets run straight to the river.

[HuaHinHim]

3 hours 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???

 

 

 

 

 

I don't think you can blame Thailands garbage on passing ships. I think you will find that most reputable shipping companies abide by Marpol and will dispose of their rubbish when they get into port. At least that's what I do as the penalties these days are quite substantial. The problem with this is these laws require garbage separation and disposal at port but the port facility often doesn't have the infrastructure setup to do what the shipping community is required to do by law. Africa is a good example, we disposed of garbage at one port using what was supposed to be a licensed reputable disposal service, only to find our garbage dumped in a vacant lot 50m around a corner from where we were docked blowing everywhere in the wind.

 

Thailands garbage problem is theirs alone and only they can solve it. Education and enforcement are the only ways. We had similar problems in Australia in the 60's & 70's and the clean up Australia campaign (which still operates today) along with fines and proper enforcement has to a large degree eradicated public area littering. Littering became a shame full thing to do so less and less people do it. Having said all that if the infrastructure to collect and properly contain and dispose of garbage is not in place then you will be fighting an uphill battle and this is why Thai people have to demand more and better services from their government.

 

I'm disgusted and puzzled at the same time as to why someone would even want to throw garbage around their home, neighbourhoods, towns or cities and seeing people do it to their country saddens me. If ever the government needs to adjust some attitudes then this problem should up near the top of their list

3 hours ago, Loeilad said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[louse1953]

3 hours ago, Blackheart1916 said:

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.

Rubbish does not choose what beach to go to.It will be on all beaches,if not today,tomorrow.Way back,when you couldn't swim at Pattaya for the shit,we would go to Jomtein which was clean.Now it is just as disgraceful.

[TheFishman1]

They need more trash containers and teach Thais how to use them TIT

[elgordo38]

13 hours ago, goferman said:

 

 

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

Hey Donald do we have an environmental problem? NOPE

[louse1953]

2 hours ago, johnny49r said:

Some people mentioned that folks should simply take their trash to a bin instead of tossing it on the ground.

Anyone seen a bin lately? And if there was one, who would empty this magical bin?

Even the big metropolitan places like malls and the airport have precious few disposal bins. 

 

Thai culture also prevents proper disposal and recycling of trash. I have seen countless adults and children simply toss their trash on the roadside. 

Thais apparently see beauty in a landscape choked with plastic waste. Perhaps I just need attitude adjustment!

No bin take it home,after all,it is yours.

[elgordo38]

Headlines Rubbish robbers steal beach. Way to go netziens. If not for you this problem would never be exposed for what it is. Dear General sell a sub fix the beach. Without the beach you will have no money to pay for the sub. 

[louse1953]

2 hours ago, Siamfan said:

Something that needs to be added-  about 90 percent of the plastic bottles washed on shore are - what a surprise- Vietnamese and Chinese origin... you can clearly see non-Thai language on the stickers or prints on the bottles and cans...  the wind and currents bring it into the gulf....so its NOT only from Thais that dump stuff in Klongs - and not at all from Tourists on the beach... A lot of the small (energy drinks) glass bottles and light bulbs ( to attract squid...) however are dumped from the fishing boats on sea at night... that is really a shame that should and could be directly addressed... Plastic at least doesn't hurt somebody, but broken glass on a sand beach in a tourist destination is a serious problem !

Plastic doesn't hurt anyone,you gotta be joking Cows and buffaloes eat bags,whales suck them in and if you eat any type of seafood you are eating plastic,you just don't know it.

[Living in a cartoon]

2 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Easy guys lets smoke a peace pipe and all be friends. Life is just to damn short.

 

OK, but anti-smoking zealots piss me off.

[louse1953]

1 hour ago, johnhw said:

Agreed. However, calling people here "Slobs and pigs" is ignorand, disgusting, offensive and counterproductive 

If the cap fits...........

[Gandtee]

'Don't be a litter lout!' In the UK this poster was everywhere many years ago. I arrived at Birmingham airport and was amazed at the rubbish scattered on the walk to the  arrival area. It was more noticeable because I had arrived from Switzerland where cleanliness is a priority..

[johnhw]

1 hour ago, fish monger said:

Excuse, but did I say "slobs and pigs".......I meant slobs and pigs...I don't care how ignorant you think that might be, but it's the truth...!

I'm from a part of pristine North America boasting a fraction of the population of this part of Asia, with government and personal income that makes Thailand look like a banana republic.

We boast the largest bodies of fresh water in the world, not even including countless other lakes and rivers. Many of them are polluted to the point where swimming areas are regularily posted as unfit to swim....one of them I understand has a huge mass of chemicals and waste at the mouth of a river entrance.

Not to mention the millions of acres of forests denuded, and the subsequent flooding, and the centuries of reckless environmental rape that paid for our "advanced" standard of living.

Yes, efforts are being made to clean up the mess.

Nevertheless, while I, too, must walk here sometimes for blocks before finding a trashcan to drop off a wrapper, for me to call Thais 'slobs and pigs,' I would either need to be selectively delusional, or have an IQ of my shoe size.

...and as for the TV watchdog sensor indignantly alarmed at my IQ remark, can I suggest you develop the same indigence at the "slobs and pigs" remark??

[mlmcleod]

SO, how about some solutions instead of complaints!

 

Solution number 1,  wherever beach vendors should be responsible for cleaning the beach in front of their business every morning!  In Jomtien, I was shocked to see a 3 foot pile of trash directly in front of all the beach chair locations.  Then they complain when no one wants a beach chair??????

 

I think the government should have a stiff fine if this is not done.  Alas, there is no way to use this fine against farangs so it is all just smoke.

 

Any other solutions?

 

Don't get mad, it is just my opinion!!! (:>)

[oldsailor35]

12 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.

An easy analysis !  Blame the tourists, when it is the responsibility of the locals to keep their own environment clean and healthy, not to expect visitors to do it.

I am not part of it, but i have noted that annually Farangs get together and clean up the Bangrak beach area, don't think this is organised by Thais, who generally do not see rubbish, just have a ride around some of the back street residential areas and view the rubbish collected around Thai homes.

I am not Thai bashing, but just notice what goes on.  Even the island officials do not appear to be overly concerned about the islands rubbish removal, but just seem to be waiting for someone else to solve the problem.  It is about time the ex General started paying private homes a visit and ordered them to clean the place up, after all this is a major tourist island , visited by thousands from all over the world who are going to go home and give a report to future visitors.

[oldsailor35]

This is why i am so proud of Queensland beaches also Australian beaches in general and of the councils which control them, they are "always" so pristine.  Take the Gold and Sunshine Coast beaches for example, every morning before the beach users arrive , council tractors go up and down with attachments, sifting the sand extracting any rubbish which might be there. I doubt if any council anywhere in Thailand has such equipment although Thai council officials do their annual "fact finding" trips overseas to see  what others are doing, and then just forgetting what they have seen  when their "holiday trip" entitlement is over.