Thais condemned as "fifth worst" polluters of the sea on the planet

[webfact]

Thais condemned as "fifth worst" polluters of the sea on the planet

 

Picture: Manger Online

 

BANGKOK: -- A leading marine scientist has slammed the Thai people for throwing rubbish in the sea.

 

And he said that Thais were among the worst polluters of the ocean even coming in fifth as the biggest culprits on earth, reported Manager Online.

 

Thon Thamrongnawasawat posted a picture on his Facebook page that showed a ten kilometer stretch of mainly plastic rubbish floating in the sea off Chumporn in the south of Thailand.

 

Picture: Manager Online

 

The scientist from Kasetsat University in Bangkok said the picture came from a fisherman and was evidence of the untold damage being done to the sea and marine life in the Gulf of Thailand.

 

He urged the government to get tough with people damaging the sea. But he said that each and every Thai person had to take responsibility for their actions and stop littering.

 

Thon said that Thais were number 5 in the list of worst polluters on earth though Manager did not report how he came up with that statistic.

 

Source: Manager Online

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-02-09

 

RELATED: All provinces to go ahead with Garbage-Free Thailand campaign

[petedk]

It really is disgusting the way Thai people use so many plastic bags for everything and then just dump them anywhere.

I remember seeing a beach in Chonburi like the picture above. I can't imagine how many sea creatures are hurt by all this plastic.

 

A couple of days ago I was watching a report on Sky News about a whale that died after suffering for several days. When they cut the whale open they found several plastic bags lodged in its stomach and intestines blocking the digestion of food.

Dead sea birds were found to have small pieces of plastic in their stomachs.

 

 

The whole world needs to act now and ban or greatly reduce the use of plastic.

[colinneil]

Only fifth????

Everywhere you go here you see people throwing plastic away.

Go in any 7/11 you get plastic bags, see mai ow they look at you as if you got 2 heads.

Thais go out  for the day, stop for a picnic everybody gets in the vehicle leaves all the plastic bags polystyrene behind.

They have no consideration what so ever for wildlife.

[trogers]

When can they be number 1? They have been trying so hard...

[Bluespunk]

 

[Chicog]

Pretty good, #2 in traffic deaths, #5 in marine pollution.

They're definitely punching above their weight.

[d123]

Thailand, the Hub of............

[likewise]

22 minutes ago, d123 said:

Thailand, the Hub of............

Being the best at the worst :)

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Looks like there are a few buckets from the full moon party in those photos

[jaggiss]

Once again EDUCATION!

Sent from my SM-G930F using Thaivisa Connect mobile app

[worgeordie]

The Government will say it's the tourists that cause all the pollution,

anything but face reality and save face,

 

Years ago when my daughter was in Primary school,I asked her what

did you do at school today,we were play acting,the teacher said to 4

kids you can be Farangs, go  and make  like you are throwing litter, and the 

rest of the class  can go and collect it .

regards Worgeordie

[elgordo38]

2 hours ago, trogers said:

When can they be number 1? They have been trying so hard...

I am sure the PM will come out in the near future stressing these are old figures, pictures and that the present day situation is much better. PM note to self. Stop the media from releasing these damaging pictures. Pass a defamatory picture law. 

[Saraburi121]

2 hours ago, petedk said:

It really is disgusting the way Thai people use so many plastic bags for everything and then just dump them anywhere.

I remember seeing a beach in Chonburi like the picture above. I can't imagine how many sea creatures are hurt by all this plastic.

 

A couple of days ago I was watching a report on Sky News about a whale that died after suffering for several days. When they cut the whale open they found several plastic bags lodged in its stomach and intestines blocking the digestion of food.

Dead sea birds were found to have small pieces of plastic in their stomachs.

 

 

The whole world needs to act now and ban or greatly reduce the use of plastic.

Cultural change is hard, plastic bags are a part of life in most of the world. I despise plastic bags that litter our village. I used to live in Japan and they charged extra for plastic bags, most understood and brought their own reusable bags, not all.  How would Thailand adjust from getting everything from coffee to meat in a plastic bag?  Hard to change a way of life to save the future if it costs money that most don't have. Live for today attitude.  Change starts slowly.  Did you take your own bag to the market?  Your own cup to the coffee shop?  I'm guilty but do what I can because I see the plastic floating by house every time it rains. 

[MorristheRunt]

That's what happens when you don't educate your population.

 

Ignorance is killing Thailand at every level.

 

Tragic and totally correctable.

 

Reap what you sow

[janhkt]

2 hours ago, colinneil said:

Only fifth????

Everywhere you go here you see people throwing plastic away.

Go in any 7/11 you get plastic bags, see mai ow they look at you as if you got 2 heads.

Thais go out  for the day, stop for a picnic everybody gets in the vehicle leaves all the plastic bags polystyrene behind.

They have no consideration what so ever for wildlife.

And not just that. You buy any drinkable product, they blindly put straws in the bag as well. Same goes if you buy food or yoghurt - you automatically get plastic utensils.

 

Mai ao, krap.

[djayz]

In 2002 Ireland became the first country to impose a plastic bag levy. It led to a 90% drop in use of plastic bags, with one billion fewer bags used, and it generated $9.6 million for a green fund supporting environmental projects. In addition there is much less roadside litter from plastic bags. Ironically, with the success of the program, and people bringing their own reusable carriers to shop, the proceeds from the levy have fallen and there is less money for supporting environmental projects.

 

If it works for us and many other countries (e.g. Northern Ireland, Germany, etc) I see no reason why it wouldn't work here. 

A previous poster believes charging extra isn't going to work in LOS because "most people don't have money". This I strongly disagree with. If they didn't have money, they wouldn't be able to go out shopping and hence wouldn't need plastic bags in the first place. 

I use my reusable bag as often as I can. Usually I get strange "arai wah!" looks from the shop staff, but they get used to it after a while and are quite perplexed when I occassionally forget it at home. 

A bag levy would work here, but a certain company/family, which is a big manufacturer of plastic bags, might not be too keen on the idea of schemes which protect the environment at the expense of their sales. 

[webfact]

Huge garbage patch drifting in Gulf of Thailand spotted

 

 

BANGKOK: -- A large garbage patch extending up to over 10 kilometres long was spotted drifting in the Gulf of Thailand, but still does not pose threat to the country's ecosystem.

 

The photo of the huge garbage patch was posted on the Internet by marine expert Dr Thon Thamrongnawasawat, deputy dean at the Fisheries Faculty of Kasetsart University.

 

The marine expert said the huge garbage patch is evidence of the country’s failure to manage the garbage problem.

 

It also served as a warning that the plastic garbage management of  the country is at critical level, he said in his post.

 

He said Thailand comes sixth rank in the world to dump plastic bag trashes into the sea, and the world’s number one that faces severest garbage problem in the sea.

 

He said garbage patch is harmful to marine lives, particularly sea turtles and dolphin babies that happened to eat them.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/huge-garbage-patch-drifting-gulf-thailand-spotted/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2017-02-09

[Thailand]

They have gone from 5th to 6th worse during the course of the thread so far, could see the country rubbish free by the end of the week. 

[HOAX]

A sick whale was found outside the coast of Norway around a week ago. In his stomach they found:




30 plastic bags from the UK, Denmark and Norway, as well as lots of micro plastics.

Micro plastics are often so tiny that it isn't even detected in the seafood that is sold.

We eat that seafood, and the plastic.

For the sealife itself, it obviously doesn't do them any good either.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Brer Fox]

I am left curiously wondering how TAT will turn this into a positive to attract another million or so tourists. We have had Pokemon Go and newlyweds and now possibly "come and see our unique Thai floating garbage in our clear blue waters..... but don't you dare touch our dying coral hidden below the rubbish on the sea floor".

[Mook23]

37 minutes ago, MorristheRunt said:

That's what happens when you don't educate your population.

 

Ignorance is killing Thailand at every level.

 

Tragic and totally correctable.

 

Reap what you sow

True. From oxcart to turbo diesel way too fast: road carnage.

From bananaleaf to plastic: eco carnage.

Thailand is technologically modern but the people are so far behind including the "leaders"...

[Kasset Tak]

The problem here is that sellers pack everything in plastic bag. Many times when they sell vegetables in the market they are packed in a plastic bag and then they will put that bag in another plastic bag and then when you go to the next stall they do the same and the sellers lock at you like you are crazy if you say that you don't need the bag as you already have a bag...
Toothpaste is another great example on how bad the package industry really is... a plastic tube packed in a paper box wrapped in a layer of plastic and then another layer of plastic to make it a multi pack and then probably packed in a cardboard box, that's 1 layer of paper and 2 layers of plastic wrap that is basically not needed.

I started to bring my own reusable plastic or glass containers about 2 years ago when I buy precooked food. Back then people was just astonished that I did that, but after the first year 5 out of 7 Thais working in the same office I do had started using reusable food containers for their lunches and reusable cups for their ice coffee.

[zaphod reborn]

Quote

And he said that Thais were among the worst polluters of the ocean even coming in fifth as the biggest culprits on earth

 

In a Graham Chapman voice: "Good thing I didn't mention the dirty roadsides ."

[Laughing Gravy]

1 hour ago, elgordo38 said:

I am sure the PM will come out in the near future stressing these are old figures, pictures and that the present day situation is much better. PM note to self. Stop the media from releasing these damaging pictures. Pass a defamatory picture law. 

I can feel another committee coming on to reduce this ranking..... say in 3 months.

[CGW]

3 hours ago, Chicog said:

Pretty good, #2 in traffic deaths, #5 in marine pollution.

They're definitely punching above their weight.

Noise pollution they are #1

[Shawn0000]

3 hours ago, trogers said:

When can they be number 1? They have been trying so hard...

China produces about 8 times as much of the sea pollution, it is unlikely that Thailand will overtake them anytime soon, but then China could go the route of India with their plastic taxes and high fines for giving out plastic bags and turn things around as India has done, who despite being almost as big as China now contribute only about 5% of the sea pollution that China does and by population less than the US.

[Mook23]

20 minutes ago, Laughing Gravy said:

I can feel another committee coming on to reduce this ranking..... say in 3 months.

Jup. A committee that will be flying to Hawaii for a teambuilding trip / brainstorm session how to tacle pollution... 

Edited February 9, 2017 by Mook23

[quadperfect]

My personal view on this and i sail between thailand ,malaysia and indonesia west coasts on a regular basis is there is no way you can know where this plastic is comming from.

It could be malaysian,indonesian and thai but it could also be a cumulative from all asia.

Its a asia problem not just thailand.

I have seen 20 mile stretches of plastic  just like these pictures on the west coast of java. And sumatra.

Phuket i have seen a few hundred meters of it before but nothing like indo.

Rice bags are often fouling my propeller off phuket.hundreds of them out there.

Its time for a give a hoot dont polute campaign in asia.all asia not just thailand.

Thailand phuket west coast seems much less poluted to me than all malaysia and indonesia so maybe those are 2 and 3 

 india is 1 for sure. 

We all know india is a hell hole and a lot of there crap works its way around the world. 

I am talking west coast. I have no idea about the gulf situation.but those pictures look pretty familiar.

I could swear i passed that patch last year in indo.

 

 

[Shawn0000]

12 minutes ago, quadperfect said:

My personal view on this and i sail between thailand ,malaysia and indonesia west coasts on a regular basis is there is no way you can know where this plastic is comming from.

It could be malaysian,indonesian and thai but it could also be a cumulative from all asia.

Its a asia problem not just thailand.

I have seen 20 mile stretches of plastic  just like these pictures on the west coast of java. And sumatra.

Phuket i have seen a few hundred meters of it before but nothing like indo.

Rice bags are often fouling my propeller off phuket.hundreds of them out there.

Its time for a give a hoot dont polute campaign in asia.all asia not just thailand.

Thailand phuket west coast seems much less poluted to me than all malaysia and indonesia so maybe those are 2 and 3 

 india is 1 for sure. 

We all know india is a hell hole and a lot of there crap works its way around the world. 

I am talking west coast. I have no idea about the gulf situation.but those pictures look pretty familiar.

I could swear i passed that patch last year in indo.

 

 

 

Of course there is a way to know where it is coming from, rubbish can be analyzed and its origin traced, as has been done by the Ocean Conservancy and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment, who published their results earlier this year demonstrating that Thailand is the 5th biggest contributor in the world, behind China, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia, and combined these five countries contribute half of the worlds sea pollution.  All this guy has done here is repeat the findings of this study without giving his source.

India, by the way, is further down the list, they now have very strict laws regarding plastic waste choosing cloth bags over plastic and enforcing minimum thicknesses of all packaging which encourages recycling, and as a result they produce less sea pollution per capita than the US.

[captnhoy]

1 hour ago, Saraburi121 said:

Cultural change is hard, plastic bags are a part of life in most of the world. I despise plastic bags that litter our village. I used to live in Japan and they charged extra for plastic bags, most understood and brought their own reusable bags, not all.  How would Thailand adjust from getting everything from coffee to meat in a plastic bag?  Hard to change a way of life to save the future if it costs money that most don't have. Live for today attitude.  Change starts slowly.  Did you take your own bag to the market?  Your own cup to the coffee shop?  I'm guilty but do what I can because I see the plastic floating by house every time it rains. 

Yes I did take my own bags to Makro today where they do not supply any. And when I shop Tesco I do the same even though they do use plastic bags. Mostly I am responding though because I respectfully disagree with your statement about "money that most do not have". This is Thailand, not Bangladesh and the poverty is not so terrible as even in the Philippines. I think this problem is about ignorance and apathy. They don't know and those that do do not care. I have had visitors from my home country shooting pictures in horror of the local stream bed at low tide FILLED with trash. Next big rain when the tide is up, out to sea it goes.

Edited February 9, 2017 by captnhoy