Cap seal to be phased out in Thailand within a year

[Artisi]

1 minute ago, digbeth said:

 

supposedly the tap water is drinkable

Supposedly when it leaves the treatment plant, but from there to your house -  well that's another story....... 

[curlylekan]

The real culprit are the plastic bags. I don't know how many times over my countless trips to Thailand I have to say "NO, I don't need/want one" when going to any store. If I'm not paying attention, my stuff is always bagged and like another poster, thinking litter is everyone else's problem needs to be looked at too.

[impulse]

4 minutes ago, curlylekan said:

The real culprit are the plastic bags. I don't know how many times over my countless trips to Thailand I have to say "NO, I don't need/want one" when going to any store. If I'm not paying attention, my stuff is always bagged and like another poster, thinking litter is everyone else's problem needs to be looked at too.

 

9 times out of 10, I leave 7-11 with no bag and no straw.  I just got into the habit of saying "no bag, please".  They mostly appreciate it.

 

Edit:  I am at equilibrium with BigC and TESCO bags.  I collect them to use for my trash, but I'm using them as fast as I bring them home.  They're bigger and sturdier than the 7-11 bags.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2017 by impulse

[just.a.thought]

Please don't stop there,plastic bags at the supermarket and 7/11 would make a big difference and it would be a wake up call.

[curlylekan]

28 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

9 times out of 10, I leave 7-11 with no bag and no straw.  I just got into the habit of saying "no bag, please".  They mostly appreciate it.

 

Edit:  I am at equilibrium with BigC and TESCO bags.  I collect them to use for my trash, but I'm using them as fast as I bring them home.  They're bigger and sturdier than the 7-11 bags.

 

 

Oh yes, I definitely say no too, but it's amazing how quickly any worker is to bag my stuff should I forget to politely say no and those ones at the big supermarket's I reuse as well - they're good for that. It's the 7-11 and family mart bags that get me.

[Redline]

Baby steps

[MadDog2020]

10 hours ago, MrMo said:

While anything to reduce trash in the environment is good we also need a reduction of trash in the news media.   2.6 million cap seals do not weight 520 tonnes or to simplify it fifty thousand cap seals do not weigh 10 tonnes.

 

Wherever trash reporting occurs the people end up with trash government.

Why do sites keep propagating this nonsense.  I think any serious Journalist would stop reposting facts that are obviously false.

[IAMHERE]

Keep the seals, just make them biodegrade after two years. These bottles have date to use by, so the plastic seal should biodegrade after that date. Problem today is the seals last thousands of years.

[DogNo1]

For a while, the fitness center at my hotel handed out bottles of the hotel-brand water filled from the tap.  The water tasted different and made me feel bad.    The bottles were indistinguishable from the original bottles until you noticed that they were too easy to open..  For anyone who thinks that Bangkok tap water is safe to drink, try running your tap water through a reverse-osmosis filter for a couple of days and tell me what you find in the filter after that.  You will be amazed at the black junk that you'll find.

[Soikhaonoiken]

18 hours ago, jaiyen said:

So how will they seal the bottles? Or will they be unsealed so anyone can go in a shop and easily open the bottle and drink from it and put it back.

 

Or either tamper with the contents, that's what the seal was intended to do !

[daiwill]

Is this story about the completely needless polyethene wrap around the plastic screw tops or the plastic screw tops which are sealed anyway?  If it is about the screwtops, then what will be the alternative method of sealing a plastic bottle?  Why not just do away with plastic botttles?  Use recycleable glass ones, like the good old days.  But no, we can't do that as it adds to the weight of the bottle and ultimately the transportation costs. The World is doomed, I tell ya !!

[madusa]

20 hours ago, jaywalker said:

I say it's great news!

 

I know that when I'm hung over, with a raging thirst in the tropical heat, trying to get those little seals undone is a nightmare!

You keep your fingernails very short? You don't carry a penknife in your bag or backpack?

If your fingernails crack while trying to open the  seals then you are short of calcium and magnesium. Your nails should be able to crack the seal, strong fingernails. 

 

[madusa]

19 hours ago, chainarong said:

For the Long term Thai watchers , they will remember that there was no secure caps , they were introduced because of tourists becoming sick drinking water that had been topped up from the mains system and flogged off as spring water , it has nothing whatsoever to do with leaking bottles ............................................................

You right on the spot. I never like the drinking water in Thailand because they taste strange, Did they put something in it, like chemical to kill the bacteria? I am talking about the bottle drinking water that has the elephant sign on it.

[jacko45k]

Yes they are a fiddly nuisance particularly if you have no finger-nails.

Although I worry about bottles being refilled from the tap and passed off as filtered/good water.  Since the metal foil was removed from beer tops I am quite sure I get the odd one (or more) that has been 'topped off' and had the cap banged back on!

[wealthychef]

23 hours ago, Estrada said:

The cap seals are there to prevent the locals' habit of opening bottles and sniffing them, tasting the contents etc then replacing the cap.  They then either decide to take an unopened bottle or not to take a bottle at all.

Another thing they prevent is restaurants digging plastic bottles out of the trash and filling them with tap water before charging customers for bottled water.  

[jaywalker]

2 hours ago, madusa said:

You keep your fingernails very short? You don't carry a penknife in your bag or backpack?

If your fingernails crack while trying to open the  seals then you are short of calcium and magnesium. Your nails should be able to crack the seal, strong fingernails. 

 

More like short of interest in fiddling w/ the aggravating things.

 

I've stabbed a few water bottles to get at the contents.

 

I usually hand it to the female & let her do it.

 

I don't carry bags nor backpacks (unless you count that night I carried one home from the Thermae at 0400 hrs, 18 years ago.

Edited June 13, 2017 by jaywalker

[Keesters]

23 hours ago, Toshiba66 said:

I think they have much bigger environmental issues to deal with rather than these seals.

 

The litter issue is outrageous. Bangkok is just one big rubbish dump.

 

Thailand is just one big rubbish dump

 

See facebook DirtyThailand

[Keesters]

14 hours ago, digbeth said:

 

supposedly the tap water is drinkable

 

Always (30+ years) had a filter unit fitted in my Pattaya house. Units have been upgraded and replaced as years go by. Never purchased bottle water. All family and friends drink it. Nobody got sick from it. It amazes me at the number of people I see loading up with dozens of plastic bottles filled with dubious quality water at the supermarket. And those guys that drive around with 20 liter containers of "safe" drinking water. Who is to say it is safe? The best it's got is UV treatment from sitting in the back of the truck. Then there's those street dispensers that often receive no maintenance/cleaning.

 

If stopping the tiny plastic seal saves 520 tonnes think what stopping the bottles would save.

 

Do the world a favor and get a water filtration unit. Be part of the solution not the problem.

[impulse]

1 hour ago, wealthychef said:

Another thing they prevent is restaurants digging plastic bottles out of the trash and filling them with tap water before charging customers for bottled water.  

 

That's one reason I always ask to open my own bottle when they bring it out.  I usually forgo the ice as well (a habit I learned traveling to Mexico 30-40 years ago).

 

Otherwise, they open it and pour it on ice, which disguises the taste of the tap water.  And I don't know whether it was a sealed bottle or not.

 

I know some of the restaurants I frequented in China refilled their own water bottles with R/O filtered tap water, because the owners were friends.  I can't imagine Thailand would be immune.

 

 

[Italian guy]

On 12/06/2017 at 7:34 AM, jaiyen said:

So how will they seal the bottles? Or will they be unsealed so anyone can go in a shop and easily open the bottle and drink from it and put it back.

 

A tiny recycled paper strip seal would do.

[WhyYouTalkMeBad]

Next fixation is throwing straws at you. They even throw straws at me when I buy beer

[madusa]

5 hours ago, jaywalker said:

More like short of interest in fiddling w/ the aggravating things.

 

I've stabbed a few water bottles to get at the contents.

 

I usually hand it to the female & let her do it.

 

I don't carry bags nor backpacks (unless you count that night I carried one home from the Thermae at 0400 hrs, 18 years ago.

Forgot to mention vitamin B5 is good for your nails. Yes, that will do the trick. Stabbing a water bottle to get at the contents can be good for releasing your anger. You imagine you stab your wife or boss. For me I imagine I stab my mother. Why? Because she talked too much.

[brianj1964]

On 6/12/2017 at 2:12 AM, rickb said:

2.6 million cap seals out of 7 billion bottles of water just doesn't seem correct.  Almost every bottle of water I've ever seen in Thailand has a cap seal.  So I would expect the number of cap seals to be something much closer to 7 billion.  

 

the plastic ones do, but the glass ones have that ring pull

[Nice Boyd]

Delighted, I usually give the gf


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[cooked]

On 13/06/2017 at 7:58 AM, Keesters said:

 

Always (30+ years) had a filter unit fitted in my Pattaya house. Units have been upgraded and replaced as years go by. Never purchased bottle water. All family and friends drink it. Nobody got sick from it. It amazes me at the number of people I see loading up with dozens of plastic bottles filled with dubious quality water at the supermarket. And those guys that drive around with 20 liter containers of "safe" drinking water. Who is to say it is safe? The best it's got is UV treatment from sitting in the back of the truck. Then there's those street dispensers that often receive no maintenance/cleaning.

 

If stopping the tiny plastic seal saves 520 tonnes think what stopping the bottles would save.

 

Do the world a favor and get a water filtration unit. Be part of the solution not the problem.

I have to agree with this, since we bought a ฿11 000.- filter unit I drink a lot more water from the unit, it tastes better than a lot of bottled water. It certainly tastes better than the water we got off the roof before, although drinking that probably immunised me against all sorts of diseases. We were buying water for about ฿800.- a month before so the economics are quickly worked out.

By the way, if you think that the Thais clean and change the filters on the apparatuses (apparati) you see on the street then you haven't been in Thailand for very long.

[impulse]

On 6/12/2017 at 4:51 PM, impulse said:

BTW, anybody interested in the technology (and commercial aspects) of packaging like water bottles should go to the ProPak Asia Trade show at BITEC from June 14-17.

 

www.propakasia.com

 

http://www.propakasia.com/ppka/2017/en/product_highlights.asp

 

See how cheap and easy it would be to start refilling plastic water bottles and recap them with brand new caps, for a tiny portion of the money you'd have to spend on brand new water and bottles.  Another reason I like the trademarked heat shrink cap seals.

 

I'm upgrading my characterization of this BITEC trade show to "excellent" after I attended today.

 

Asked a guy running a bottle making machine what it costs to make a small water bottle, and was surprised to learn it's about 1.7 baht.  I thought they'd be cheaper to make.  That didn't include the cap or the label.

 

[observer90210]

Will this make it easier for dishonest merchants or restaurants to fill up bottles with tap water with fake cork ring seals?

[Keesters]

22 hours ago, cooked said:

I have to agree with this, since we bought a ฿11 000.- filter unit I drink a lot more water from the unit, it tastes better than a lot of bottled water. It certainly tastes better than the water we got off the roof before, although drinking that probably immunised me against all sorts of diseases. We were buying water for about ฿800.- a month before so the economics are quickly worked out.

By the way, if you think that the Thais clean and change the filters on the apparatuses (apparati) you see on the street then you haven't been in Thailand for very long.

11,000 for a filter unit. That must be some machine. Most I've ever paid is 3 to 4 thousand. Started with a  single filter now up to 3 filters.

 

I've been here 33 years and have NEVER seen a street water filter undergo maintenance/cleaning. I said " often receive no " because I don't monitor all machines all the time.

 

 

[3 minus 2]

On 06/12/2017 at 2:04 AM, williamgeorgeallen said:

i am with you there. i would have though charging for plastic bags would have been the first and more effective move.

Not totally opposed to the seals going, however bac in the day came ax a town in india that in lonely planet was renowned for people/travellers getting sic, however one evening at a party got the mayor pissed and he admited the WHOLE town were in on a scam of bottling tap water... is there any garuntee that sort of thing wont happen in thailand?

And I've NEVER come ax ANYWHERE like  thailand/Bangkok for plastic bags, it needs addressing.

[Bastos60]

On 6/12/2017 at 2:34 AM, jaiyen said:

So how will they seal the bottles? Or will they be unsealed so anyone can go in a shop and easily open the bottle and drink from it and put it back.

 

What is stopping you to do this now?