Rant: plastic bags

[komfortablynumb]

Ok guys haven't contributed anything to this forum in months.
I have been living in Pak for 14 months. Newbie, chi.
What really really really gets up my nose is PLASTIC BAGS.
Why oh why does every one put your stuff in a plastic bag.
They reach for the plastic bag before even registering it on the computer.
We mostly don't need the damn things.
A packet of condoms (Small size for me) A packet of cigaretes, all things i will put in my pocket for the rest of the night.
I don't need the bloody plastic bags.
And where do they end up?
Well a lot end up in the Pranburi river clogging up propellors.
On a recent overnight train trip to Laos the train staff just threw out bags of rubbish.
5 years ago, yeah i was young then.
I scaled the heights of a temple in Krabi. Wonderful temple but at the top there were many discarded polystysteren (?spelling) food containers.
I am not sure that shows respect.
Would i discard an empty crisp packet in St pauls in London?
And before any one says.
If you don't like it go back to your home.
I love this country.
For all its faults i still love Thailand. Apart from immigration. of course.
Rant over.

[Takiap]

I'm not having a dig, and I know one shouldn't generalize, but in my opinion, most Thais don't see litter in the same way we do, or should I say, the way most of us do. I have spent more than ten years reflecting on this, and I've come to the conclusion most don't see a problem with it since it won't always be there. Cleaners will sweep it up, or perhaps the wind will blow it away. On a number of occasions, I've actually seen Thai workers, who were standing right beside a bin, walk away a few meters in order to toss their wrappers in the brush.

Don't forget though, no shop keeper will force you to take a bag, so do as I do, and just say no thanks. The problem will however not go away until such time the government imposes a pollution tax on carrier bags. While many will argue that a tax system would be ineffective, I've seen firsthand just how effective it can be. In my own country, if you were to buy a few groceries, it's likely that the plastic bag will cost more than your groceries, and no, you can't return the bag for a refund. This ultra heavy plastic bag tax has been highly effective, with the vast majority of shoppers now taking their own shopping bags. Admittedly, I don't know if this tax has been implemented throughout the country, or if it's left to the discretion of the business owners.


Just imagine if Thailand imposed a tax of even only 1 baht per bag. The government would make enough money from it in a single day to complete some of the major projects they have lined up.


On the other hand, many people use their old bags for throwing out their rubbish, and if you think about it, it more than likely puts less strain on the environment than it would if everyone were to use those big black bags.

To sum it up, plastic litter and a mai pen rai attitude just don't go well together.

[Winkie]

Sure litter is an ugly blot on the Landscape here.

You can, as an individual, make a small difference. Simply by refusing the the bag.

'Tung Mai Ow Krap' will suffice (but could certainly cause confusion if you are buying condoms as 'Tung' (Plastic Bag) is also slang for Condom!)

I nearly always tell them that I don't want the bag, the straw, the plastic spoons, or any of the other things they are trying to give out in the shops. When I'm at my home in Cha Am, and not here in Bangkok, I'll spend maybe 30 mins on a sat and Sun early morning, collecting the plastic and polystyrene crap from the beach, once in a Blue Moon, another beach-stroller (possibly Thai) will get the idea and do the same.

The shop staff are only doing what they are told to do, and probably think they are giving bad service if they do not give to you.

[master klaus]

Interesting project on BBC World challenge. A husband and wife team running a plastic bag recycling in Cambodia. makes fashion accessories and home goods out of woven plastic bags, in the process earning a decent income for poor rural communities.

http://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/fina ... In-The-Bag

[Winkie]

These too, have been available in Thailand for quite some time. You can buy woven hats made form plastic bags, probably other products too.

Whilst Thailand's dis-regard for general litter is both ugly and frustrating (and sometimes dangerous too), their re-cycling abilities often are better implemented than in more developed countries.

[Winkie]

Here are a couple of interesting articles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... astic-bags

http://cristencrochet.blogspot.com/2009 ... ngkok.html

[fft100]

bio-degradable 'plastic' bags are available. I have one sat in a drawer here, which is 'full' of things, but which after 1 year is disintergrating into very small pieces and creating a hell of a mess.

Its from Villa Supermarket and has oxo-biodegradable written on it. Apparently it would degrade quicker if it also had access to the sun.

Given that getting Thais to give up plastic bags would be more difficult than getting rid of beer, this would be a good solution if the thai govt introduced a rule that they had to be used instead of the normal plastic bags. Yes, they might disfigure the countryside a bit, but within 6 months or so they would disappear and couldnt be then burnt or find its way into the food chain....

[Spitfire]

7-11 is massive offender imo.....you get a plastic bags for cigarettes/chewing gum and stuff you simply don't need one for.

'Mom n Pop' shops at least put everything in one bag, in general.

I always use plastic bags from whatever source again as a bin bag in the house somewhere as we have to have small bins around the place for this, that and the other.

Sorry to say though, that Thailand is a major offender on the plastic bag front, even when you buy a Cola from somewhere they want to put it in a water-tight plastic bag with ice as they value the glass too much and charge you extra if you want the bottle.

However, not sure if charging folks for the plastic bags would work here as it would only swell the coffers of the provider and would not be passed on to environmental endeavours somewhere.

Forgive my cynical post.

[Vital Spark]

This particular problem has bugged me for as long as I've lived in this potentially beautiful country blighted by plastic and polystyrene.

I do the same as Winkie when I pop into 7/11 and refuse (politely) all the plastic rubbish that accompanies a bottle of milk. In my opinion Tesco Lotus are the worst offenders. Went for a small shop today and came back with 9 plastic bags. I've tried to tell the cashier that a T-shirt will be OK sharing a bag with cans of baked beans to no avail.

We try to encourage our students to do the same. Don't know if it works, but it's worth a try...

VS

[PeteC]

If I recall correctly Makro doesn't offer bags at all. It all gets loaded into a cart, then into your car, then into your house. If I had to estimate it's probably about 10 minutes extra work loading and unloading everything, not a bad sacrifice. Lotus, Big C, 7-11 et al could at least ask if bags are wanted or not. Perhaps the way to go is to flood their Thai HQ's with emails. Pete

[Big Boy]

Maybe the way to go is to pay customers for re-using, or providing their own bags as they do in Tescos in the UK.

[margaretcarnes]

An ongoing and very annoying problem which unfortunately goes with the territory in Thailand. After a while you just find it easier to accept the routine bags with a kind of 'mai pen rai' attitude!
The throwing bags of rubbish off trains goes on everywhere and is a particular bugbear of mine though, because in the middle of the country who's going to collect/recycle the stuff?
Two or three years back there was an initiative in Phuket (foreign run I think) to get re-useable bags into supermarkets. Did it work? Do pigs fly?
The only consolation is that - as mentioned - Thais are very good at re-using/recycling things, and do provide garbage collection services which are way above those of many other countries, which also provides jobs. In the UK our fortnightly bin collections simply don't compare!
And also in the UK there are still shops and supermarkets which don't achieve government targets for reducing plastic bag use. Tescos - yes reasonable Big Boy - but they still have bags out ready at the checkouts. As do Asda, Sainsburys and Co-ops. Morrisons are beginning to toe the line, while Marks and Waitrose behave themselves and in Lidl you have to collect a chargeable bag before checkout if you need one. Generally I think a lot of people here (UK) are getting more into using 'bags for life'. It's taking time, but getting there. Thailand however is slower to adapt to the need for change, and right now it's not going to be high on the agenda. Shame - all it needs is the introduction of degradable bags (but that would really stuff any businesses which turn bags into clothing etc!)

[PeteC]

We need to add in those styrofoam food containers as well. Many times we'll get take away and find the food enclosed in the foam box is also in one of those plastic bags vendors use for kowpad and the like. Once home the box is still brand new and not dirty at all. We asked a place "why" and got the reply from the waitress that the food just in a plastic bag doesn't look nice. We told her to take the boxes back as didn't want them. I think the foam boxes take decades longer to decay than the shopping bags.

The Thais are getting up to speed by not using foam for their Loy Kratong floats, hopefully just another small nudge will take them past the food containers as well. Pete

[Lung Per]

Denmark introduced a tax on plastic bags quite a while ago. Consumers now pay DKK 3 - 3.50 (about $ .70) per plastic shopping bag. Consumers now reuse plastic shopping bags over and over before discarding them.
The small plastic bags used by 7/11 in Thailand are really a nuisance.

[chopsticks]

Similar (but lower) taxes have been introduced on bags supplied in other countries such as Republic of Ireland, Wales and S.Africa.