Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

[PeteC]

Try to never get take-away food in a foam container. Take your own containers, they are available everywhere and resemble a tower of 3-4 boxes strapped together. We use them all the time when bringing sushi, kowpad or anything home that would require a foam box.

Check every bag you get when ordering take-away. Remove those small plastic bags filled with spoons/forks, condiments, napkins and give them back to the waitress. They pay for the things and will be happy for you not to want them.

F' the line at 7-11 or Family Mart. Stand there and take every straw, spoon or whatever you don't want out of the bag and give it back to the clerk. The more people who see you do this the better as a good example for them.

Don't throw away your plastic grocery bags. Store them up in the kitchen and use them when you need to collect house trash, and as bags to put your recyclables into for pick up. Yes, they still probably end up in the landfill, but at least they're getting a second use. There are more ideas I'm sure......Pete

[404cameljockey]

Thanks Pete, I guess mods might rename and move this to another thread about recycling so more people can see it.

[buksida]

Ok, moved this out of the Trash Hero thread. Thanks for starting it, will be adding to it!

[Nereus]

The following is a very much unknown insidious form of pollution. A recent documentary researched this product and how it gets into the food chain, and ultimately into humans.
............................................................................................................................
UK ban on microbeads to be ‘strongest in the world’, say delighted campaigners

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 52941.html

The UK is to introduce the “strongest ban on microbeads in the world”, campaigners have said after the Government announced it was going ahead with its plans.

Following a public consultation, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said a ban would be brought in on microplastics in “rinse-off” cosmetics and personal care products like toothpaste.

While “leave-on” products – like make-up and sunscreen – will not be affected, Ministers have asked an expert committee to examine whether they and other products should be.

The cosmetics industry had complained about the difficulty and cost involved in reformulating products.

Microbeads, which can be replaced with natural alternatives, are just one type of microplastic pollution of the oceans that is causing immense concern because of the harmful effects on marine wildlife. 

“Banning microbeads is an important start to addressing the millions of tonnes of plastics entering the oceans every year,” she said.
“Microbeads are one of the most pervasive forms of marine pollution and prevention at source is far more effective than clean-up at sea. 
“The ban needs to be as extensive as possible, to cover all products: there must be no loopholes or exemptions. Ocean creatures don’t distinguish between different cosmetics.”

“Plastics now litter much of our shores and our oceans.  The damage to marine life is easy to see with birds, fish, turtles and marine mammals regularly found dead having ingested plastic waste, which compounds the current loss of global wildlife,” she said.
“Action also needs to be taken by everyone in the supply chain to reduce, reuse and recycle, including us consumers.”

Some ugly photos at the link.

[buksida]

[404cameljockey]

Buskida also posted the below interesting message in the 'Clean Hua Hin's Beaches' thread so I'll copy it here.
I like the idea, but I also like to know the provenance of my water and its chemical makeup as much as possible (as was discussed in another thread about water a month or so ago).
Although it seems not to be available in HH yet, I wonder who is the physical supplier of the water at Trash Heroes refill stations? Apologies if the info is on their website and I missed it.

+++
by buksida » Wed Oct 25, 2017 11:00 am
"Trash Hero have a bottle project whereby you buy a stainless bottle that can be refilled for free all across Thailand in participating venues: https://trashhero.org/what-we-do/#bottles-and-bags

Free water refill station locator: https://trashhero.org/refill

This way you're not buying plastic bottles from the shops every day. It is a start, but a journey of a thousands steps has to start with one.

Not sure if this is in place in Hua Hin yet, it would be nice if someone from TH Hua Hin posted here to update us.

Edit: hopefully there will be more ideas posted in the new recycling thread."
+++++

[VincentD]

....Remove those small plastic bags filled with spoons/forks, condiments, napkins and give them back to the waitress. They pay for the things and will be happy for you not to want them.

F' the line at 7-11 or Family Mart. Stand there and take every straw, spoon or whatever you don't want out of the bag and give it back to the clerk. The more people who see you do this the better as a good example for them.

Don't throw away your plastic grocery bags. Store them up in the kitchen and use them when you need to collect house trash, and as bags to put your recyclables into for pick up. Yes, they still probably end up in the landfill, but at least they're getting a second use. There are more ideas I'm sure......Pete

Have been practicing this for quite a while.
I don't understand the logic in the 7-11s where they will give you a straw with each bottle of beer or large milk..
In the wet market or when buying stuff from stallholders I make space in the plastic bags I already have and tell them not to give me more. They say, however, that many locals expect these extra bags..

When I was young I had to bring a rattan basket to the market. All the veggies and stuff were wrapped in newspaper, if meats then banana leaf first before the newspaper, almost no plastic was seen. Take-away food was wrapped in a kind of leaf and tied with rattan(?) string, all this was biodegradeable.
Milk came in bottles, with a foil cap.. Which you returned..
Having said that, the chickens were alive and were slaughtered on-the-spot, as were other poultry..
And most of the herbs grew in your garden..

[buksida]

Buskida also posted the below interesting message in the 'Clean Hua Hin's Beaches' thread so I'll copy it here.

404 - That belongs on the Trash Hero thread where I posted it, there is no need to duplicate information. Maybe someone from THHH will answer on their thread.

[404cameljockey]

Buskida also posted the below interesting message in the 'Clean Hua Hin's Beaches' thread so I'll copy it here.

404 - That belongs on the Trash Hero thread where I posted it, there is no need to duplicate information. Maybe someone from THHH will answer on their thread.

I thought as it's information about reducing plastic use, anyone searching for that info would probably end up here and not a thread about clean beaches? Should I just have posted a director to it in this thread?

[deepee]

The Thais must be some of the worst offenders when it comes to unnecessary packaging . Often get a bewildered look from them when I tell them I don't need that plastic bag .
Going back a bit, I think it may have started off as some kind of status thing whereby you were obviously better off if you came home laiden down with a bunch of plastic shopping bags.
What really gets my goat is that so many of these containers end up being carelessly discarded, blowing up and down the roadways until someone foolishly burns them in a filthy cloud of black smoke.
The PPT fuel group used to put out some really nice calendars featuring the virtues of bananna leaf and rattan and bamboo containers as opposed to plastic stuff.

[buksida]

I thought as it's information about reducing plastic use, anyone searching for that info would probably end up here and not a thread about clean beaches? Should I just have posted a director to it in this thread?

The question is quite specific so should be addressed to the participants of the Trash Hero bottle project, not sure there is even one in Hua Hin. One would imagine that it is the same water that is used in all refill stations in Thailand, the stuff in the big clear blue bottles or the white ones. So if you're buying it you're drinking it anyway, by using the Trash Hero stainless bottle you're getting free refills and not buying more plastic.

Buying your own reusable water bottle from elsewhere is just as good and reduces the number of plastic bottles entering the environment every day.

[VincentD]

The Thais must be some of the worst offenders when it comes to unnecessary packaging . Often get a bewildered look from them when I tell them I don't need that plastic bag .
Going back a bit, I think it may have started off as some kind of status thing whereby you were obviously better off if you came home laiden down with a bunch of plastic shopping bags.

Not necessarily. If you go to a supermarket like Big C or Tesco, you inevitably end up with a shopping cart overflowing with goods in plastic bags. When exiting, this indicates to the security people that you have a)paid for the goods, b)the cashier has put them in plastic bags so she is doing her job, and c)those bags with the logos indicate and advertise to other people where you have been shopping. Note that if you did not have any goods in plastic bags, the security would probably go through your cart, item by item, sort of like what happens at Makro..

When in The Netherlands 27 years ago, you had to buy a plastic bag from a dispenser that was outside the supermarket. Otherwise, you just trundled the cart to your car and loaded up.

[oakdale160]

in the US and Canada, they sell reusable bags very cheaply and of course they show the s'mkt's logo. In the s'mkt I use when in Canada, the staff are trained to thank you for using re-useable.

[buksida]

Research suggests that 25% of all ocean plastic is from microfibers and car tyres. These ones are not easy to reduce though.

[buksida]

ecobrick_exchange_wall.jpg (164.76 KiB) Viewed 40355 times

Ecobricks are a great way to recycle plastic that would otherwise be burnt or end up in landfill.

I've started a project making these, with the help of the kids of course! Basically stuff all of your household plastic waste into a bottle until the thing is solid. It takes about 5 minutes per day, you may have to cut some things up to get them in.

You can build things from them or send them off to projects such as the Sai Yok Bamboo Orphanage that are building a school out of them:
https://trashhero.org/blog/ecobricks-su ... ero-trang/
https://bambooschoolthailand.wordpress.com/

More on ecobricks: http://www.ecobricks.org/