Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

General chat about life in the Land Of Smiles. Discuss expat life, relationship issues and all things generally Thailand and Asia related.
Post Reply
User avatar
Big Boy
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 44953
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 7:36 pm
Location: Bon Kai

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Big Boy »

Reminds me of this project at Wagor Aquarium:
DSC01056.jpg
DSC01056.jpg (73.88 KiB) Viewed 5046 times
DSC01057.jpg
DSC01057.jpg (142.41 KiB) Viewed 5046 times
Championship Plymouth Argyle 0 - 1 Preston NE :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Points 41; Position 18
oakdale160
Rock Star
Rock Star
Posts: 4657
Joined: Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:51 pm

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by oakdale160 »

To me the most interesting thing is why do most westerners either curtail their use of plastics or if they don't feel that they really should and Thai people;r have no such feelings. Is it that we are raised to believe that our individual actions can change things and they are raised to believe that things are unchangeable and it is fruitless to try.
User avatar
Chazz14
Specialist
Specialist
Posts: 248
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 10:55 pm
Location: Amphur Cha Am

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Chazz14 »

I agree, Oakdale.

Many Thais I have tried to explain things to over the last 4 years seem to lose all interest after about 30 seconds leaving me with the impression that they have no interest in learning anything new... I think that caring about the environment/green issues is way outside of their narrow "thinking zone."

Having said that, back in England, many people could not understand my interest in green issues either.

Of course, the current herd of Facebook and Line addicts have found the perfect way to avoid leaning anything useful at all!
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22476
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by buksida »

Yes, we know that Thais have a different way of thinking to us but can we keep this thread a positive one on recycling and plastic reduction rather than more Thai bashing!

Plastic is a global problem so it is up to all of us to try and do something about it. No one country or race is responsible for it - we all are.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22476
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by buksida »

David Attenborough says world must act now on plastic after witnessing its impacts filming Blue Planet II
The scourge of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans must be tackled, Sir David Attenborough said as he launched the second series of Blue Planet II.

More than eight million tonnes of plastic reaches the sea every year. There will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, and 99 per cent of the planet’s seabirds will have eaten some.

Humans are already eating plastic from the sea too. The average person who eats seafood swallows up to 11,000 pieces of microplastic every year, according to a study by researchers at the University of Ghent. As Prince Charles put it at a recent Our Ocean summit, “plastic is very much on the menu”.

The BBC has sold the seven-episode Blue Planet II to more than 30 countries. Sir David said he hoped that the programme, which first airs in the UK on 29 October, would help every viewer to realise “that we have a responsibility” to take plastic off the menu.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 01641.html
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22476
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by buksida »

buksida wrote: Fri Oct 27, 2017 11:36 am 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/
22814481_10159571888240486_7319721602782820909_n.jpg
Back to the ecobricks this is how many they have to build the orphanage, they obviously need more!

Why not put your old household plastic trash to good use instead of sending it to landfill where it will remain for 4,000 years or worse, burning it?
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
User avatar
PeteC
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 29923
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:58 am
Location: All Blacks training camp

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by PeteC »

Time to declare war on plastic (EDITORIAL)

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... on-plastic

Reducing the volume of plastic waste in Thailand has been an unachievable task for a long time. Cutting down on single uses of plastic materials has also been an issue largely ignored by most consumers. Official attempts, such as public awareness campaigns and voluntary cooperation sought from businesses, have always been short-lived, leaving piles of plastic waste mountains rotting on poorly managed dump sites.

But a recent effort by the Pollution Control Department (PCD) suggests that we may be able to tackle the plastic waste problem and expect concrete results if government agencies take serious action, set achievable time-bound goals and reach out to key stakeholders, especially the private sector that generates plastic materials.


On Wednesday the PCD reported its progress on its plan to end the use of plastic cap seals on drinking water bottles. Director-general Sunee Piyapanpong said nine manufacturers of drinking water have stopped using plastic cap seals. By next year, the PCD targets half of all manufacturers to do the same. By 2019, it aims for all of them to put an end to this unnecessary packaging.

Plastic cap seals on water bottles are not materials used to assure hygiene or safety standards, according to the PCD. Due to their light weight and minute scale, cap seals become plastic waste that is difficult to manage. They are too small to be effectively collected. Their light weight makes it easy for them to be scattered in the environment.

Every year Thailand generates 4.4 billion bottles of drinking water, with 60% using plastic cap seals, generating 520 tonnes of waste.

In setting this goal for ending cap seal use, the PCD goes beyond the usual approaches of raising public awareness or seeking voluntary cooperation from the private sector. It has engaged all manufacturers in talks and invited them to join a memorandum of understanding -- an agreement that they will follow the same direction.

The effort of the department is an example of a step-by-step approach that government agencies should apply when it comes to tackling the single use of plastic bags. It has been proved that voluntary efforts by asking for cooperation from consumers and businesses does not yield concrete results.

Instead, the widespread habit of the single use of plastic bags occurring almost at every point of sale has become a common habit in Thailand. At supermarkets, fresh markets, convenience stores, mom-and-pop shops and street vendors, the average Thai consumer is offered plastic bags for almost everything they bought, and they in fact also expect it as a kind of service. Every year, Thais use more than 70 billion bags, which account for more than 20% of the country's total solid waste.

Even though there have been many campaigns in recent years urging consumers to opt for cloth bags, the efforts have not been successful as they have been only temporarily adopted by a small portion of consumers and retailers.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha himself tried to lead a renewed attempt in June, acting as a poster boy for a campaign run by the Department of Environmental Quality Promotion calling for consumers to refrain from plastic bag use three days a week. The campaign has done little to change consumers' behaviour.

It is time for authorities to start taking a more vigorous approach through concrete action to cut down the use of plastic bags. They should explore enforceable options such as the imposition of levies on the production and distribution of plastic bags by businesses and the use of them by consumers. Banning them outright may face public resistance.

If buyers have to pay one or two baht for every bag they need, they will eventually reduce the use of plastic bags or even recycle the old ones they have.

Meanwhile, state agencies should also understand the nature of many Thai consumers who usually rely on takeaways as sources of cooked food wrapped in plastic bags or foam containers. If the government provides incentives for businesses to produce and use food containers made from recyclable materials, this can draw wider support.

The need to cut down plastic waste is an urgent matter. Plastic waste harms our livelihoods, blocking drains and exacerbating flooding, for example. It also poses threats to the environment. Last year Thailand reportedly dumped 2.83 tonnes of garbage into the sea, 12% of which was plastic waste. Marine animals have ingested plastic bags, mistaking them for food. Plastic waste in the ocean has also degraded into microplastic consumed by marine microorganisms such as zooplankton and fish, entering into our aquatic food chain.

Government agencies need to engage directly and equally with all manufacturers and distributors of plastic materials, setting tough rules that will protect the environment even though this may upset them.
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
User avatar
PeteC
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 29923
Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:58 am
Location: All Blacks training camp

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by PeteC »

Not really a tip, but an observation. I was thinking that when a kid in the 50's and 60's there was no such thing as a plastic trash bag. Things went into the outdoor trash can loose, and then dumped into the truck. Hosing out the trash can was a weekly chore.

Sometime in the 70's the plastic garbage bag arrived and in one swoop the world has probably added several million tons of plastic waste to landfills, seas, waterways etc. Some of these bags are heavy duty able to hold 20 lbs + of contents, and I would think take decades to decompose.

So, for the sake of cleanliness and convenience society has added massively to the problem.

Solution?...no idea, except for the plastic industry to assure that these large bags are biodegradable, but I don't know how they could do it and still enable it to carry significant weight inside. Pete
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Source
User avatar
Dannie Boy
Hero
Hero
Posts: 12030
Joined: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:12 pm
Location: Closer to Cha Am than Hua Hin

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Dannie Boy »

Like Pete I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and in the UK everything you bought was put into paper bags. Now everything comes pre packaged in plastic and cardboard or steyrene containers and then put into plastic bags. So often you buy something that may be just a few inches/cms in size but comes in packaging 4 times the size. Why do manufacturers do it - no idea, it surely can’t be consumer demand, so the cost of production is greater and with it, the disposal problem is multiplied. How to get it changed is the problem - does it require political intervention?
User avatar
Big Boy
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 44953
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 7:36 pm
Location: Bon Kai

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Big Boy »

I think back in the 50s and 60s there weren't so many self-service stores. With the event of self service, an item can be handled multiple times before it is purchased. It's food hygiene. Also, the need to keep bugs and vermin from the food.

In the case of non-food items, many items need to be protected for environmental as well physical reasons.

My career anchor was warehousing, and the protection measures required for storage in the Far East were incredible. The rest of the world has slowly caught up to MOD standards, and in many places exceeded. I did some time on a packaging course in Greenwich, and that was a real eye opener. Even dropping a little packet of desiccant into a package keeps a product like new. No packaging, no desiccant, no smart phone. As products become more and more sophisticated, so does the packaging.

How many people were buying smart phones or frozen turkeys back in the 50s?
Championship Plymouth Argyle 0 - 1 Preston NE :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Points 41; Position 18
User avatar
Nereus
Hero
Hero
Posts: 10869
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hua Hin and Bangkok

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Nereus »

Solution?...no idea, except for the plastic industry to assure that these large bags are biodegradable, but I don't know how they could do it and still enable it to carry significant weight inside. Pete
There is a current program on Australian cable TV called: "War On Waste". Some of the revelations uncovered are amazing! Just sticking with plastic bags they asked the question about "biodegradable bags". One researcher was just about having a fit condemning the use of them as he claims that all they do is break down into much smaller particles, and in fact are WORSE than a standard bag.
East Lansing, and science consultant to the Biodegradable Plastics Institute. "This is the most used and abused and misused word in our dictionary right now. In the Great Pacific garbage patch, biodegradable plastics break up into small pieces that can more easily enter the food chain by being consumed."
[5]

Here in Thailand the only shopping chain that I am aware of using degradable bags is Villa Market. They are labeled as being: ''oxo-biodegradable", "disposed in the natural environment, Sunlight, Heat and Oxygen".
Plastic bags can be made "oxo-biodegradable" by being manufactured from a normal plastic polymer (i.e. polyethylene) or polypropylene incorporating an additive which causes degradation and then biodegradation of the polymer (polyethylene) due to oxidation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxo_Biodegradable

https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/p ... egradable/

http://www.plasticplace.com/blog/5-surp ... astic-bags
Biodegradable bags are bags that are capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. Every year approximately 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide.
Like most things, the first step has to be education. The majority of consumers here have absolutely zero knowledge, plus no concern, with the environment or what constitutes pollution in any regard.
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22476
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by buksida »

Thai coral reefs literally 'sick of plastic'
Billions of bits of plastic waste are entangled in corals and sickening reefs from Thailand to Australia's Great Barrier Reef, scientists said on Thursday.

The trash is another pressure on corals, already suffering from over-fishing, rising temperatures caused by climate change and other pollution.

In the Asia-Pacific region a total of 11.1 billion plastic items - including shopping bags, fishing nets, even diapers and tea-bags - are ensnared on reefs, the scientists wrote in the journal Science.

They projected the numbers would rise by 40 percent by 2025 as marine pollution gets steadily worse.

The plastic increases the likelihood of disease about 20 times, to 89 percent for corals in contact with plastics from four percent in comparable areas with none.

Trash may damage the tiny coral animals that build reefs, making them more vulnerable to illness. And bits of plastic may act as rafts for harmful microbes in the oceans.

Scientists were shocked to find plastic even in remote reefs.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/enviro ... of-plastic
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
User avatar
Nereus
Hero
Hero
Posts: 10869
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:01 pm
Location: Hua Hin and Bangkok

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by Nereus »

Tackling plastic waste

https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opi ... stic-waste

A study of Thai and neighbouring underseas life, published last week, proves beyond doubt that people are killing coral.

Specifically, the plastic items that wind up in the area of Thai reefs is literally the death of coral. Ocean currents, sand and rocks bash and cut bags, bottles and trash to tiny bits. The coral, living animals, eat the plastic, choke and die.

"Plastic waste associated with disease on coral reefs" published in Science magazine contains shocking data. The team of scientists involved in the study visited and compiled observations, statistics and short-term predictions on 17 Asian locations from Japan to India and Australia. Among the areas the scientists visited and studied at length were 10 reefs off popular -- arguably too popular -- Koh Tao, the tourist-saturated island of Surat Thani. The dying coral there is a fairly old story. But the new figures on plastic and death on the reefs are shocking. Here's the news.

Thailand is the world's No.6 plastics polluter. That is in total pollution. In fact, comparing coastal populations and the size of reefs, Thailand is the worst dumper of plastic waste on Earth. A total population of around 30 million permanent residents and foreign tourists live, work or enjoy the sun and sand along its coastlines. The nation has 451 square kilometres of coral-inhabited reefs. That sounds like a lot, but it isn't. Indonesia has 34,300 square kilometres and the Philippines has 18,800. But even Vietnam has more than Thailand.

In 2010, the last year for which complete figures are available, Thais and tourists dumped -- the scientists call it "mismanaged" -- 256,935 metric tonnes of plastic. Extrapolation shows this number will increase in 2025 to 544,877 tonnes. If that is mind-boggling, then consider this. To make that astounding total of 256,935 tonnes, Thais and visitors in 2010 tossed 2.66 million plastic items into the ocean. Yes, much of that was inadvertent ocean pollution of items thrown into klongs or sewers and washed to sea.

Scientists predict that in 2025, seven years away, citizens and foreign guests will do this. They will throw, accidentally and on purpose, more than 8.9 million plastic items into the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea. Most of that will wash up on reefs, totalling 544,877 metric tonnes.

One hopes that concerned people are reading this report, up to and definitely including the man in charge, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. :lach:

The now undebatable slow death of Thai coral by plastic is by premeditated acts, planned or careless. It is as unnecessary as any act of vandalism, and can be as easily prevented and, thus, mostly stopped.

First, no crackdown is going to save the coral. Short, energetic bursts of anti-pollution enforcement will make no difference. Neither, sadly, will clean-up campaigns by activists and environmentalists. Conservation campaigns inevitably attract those already indisposed to littering and polluting. As is clear from the figures produced in this scientific study, picking up a tonne or two of waste off our reefs will not even delay death by plastic inhalation.

The first cure is education. Not a blitz, but a sustained, multi-year project to get it across that clean waterways -- sewers, rivers, the Gulf and the Andaman Sea -- are everyone's responsibility because they are to everyone's benefit.

Education must show cause and result of careless pollution, as well as stressing the benefits of simply picking up trash and reporting any business skirting the law to dump its waste in public waters.

The second cure is enforcement, even, if necessary, anti-pollution police. Those unable to understand the need for simple environmental steps must suffer consequences great enough to convince others that polluting doesn't pay.
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
HHTel
Hero
Hero
Posts: 10806
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:44 pm

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by HHTel »

In fact, comparing coastal populations and the size of reefs, Thailand is the worst dumper of plastic waste on Earth.
And when Prayut is asked why plastic bags aren't banned his answer is "The Thai people wouldn't like it!"

So to show that they're doing their bit..... "Let's ban smoking on the beach!"
User avatar
buksida
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 22476
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2002 12:25 pm
Location: south of sanity

Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by buksida »

R&D recycling centre to push 'zero-waste society'
The Industry Ministry plans to launch the country's first R&D centre for recycling technology in August to encourage the industrial sector to adopt innovative schemes and create secondary raw materials for their operations.

The move is part of the government's 20-year digital economy development roadmap, intended to turn Thailand into a "zero-waste society" by encouraging recycling.

Having allocated 96 million baht for its 2016-18 operational budget, the R&D centre, located in Samut Prakan province, will be run by the Department of Primary Industries and Mines (DPIM).

DPIM director-general Wisanu Tabtieng said the centre will provide innovative technology, know-how, training courses and advisory services for industry. Every scheme will be run as a pilot project before entering full-scale development, he said.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/ne ... te-society

Great initiative but it would be a good start if they stopped giving out thousands of tons of unnecessary single-use plastic everyday across the country. :banghead:
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Post Reply