Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

[HHTel]

Agree the dumping in the seas, animals eating, especially turtles at risk, but no so much on land.

Where do you think the rubbish at sea and on the beaches come from? Rains, floods, drains .....!!

[Dannie Boy]

That's one opinion.

Agree the dumping in the seas, animals eating, especially turtles at risk, but no so much on land.

Surely not enough to ban the use, or distribution of at stores. As plastic bags aren't banned, they're just not given out for free.

Main problem, especially here, is the gov't disposal of them. Obviously, a good portion of the trash is still dumped at sea, without being ground to small particles, as cruise ships are supposed to do.

On that..........does anyone actually know where our trash goes, especially from Hua Hin ? Since I don't believe there is a eco friendly trash incinerator to energy plant in the area.

Where is it being trucked to, or the landfills at. Hopefully not all getting dumped in the Gulf.

Is Thap Tai landfill still in use, or max'd out, and trucked elsewhere ?

According to the attached article, the introduction of charging for plastic bags in the UK has resulted in an 86% reduction in the sale of plastic bags - reduced use = reduced dumping of plastic that ends up in the environment - the article quotes a reduction of 30% in the affected area of the sea. https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -5p-charge

[Nereus]

Any high rise dwellers here or abroad can tell us what rules/steps are in place regarding sorting and recycling?

In my Condo in Bangkok each floor has 2 storage areas which are actually part of the services riser space, no garbage shute, just what we in Oz call "wheelie bins", in each space.

The maids collect the trash each day and it has to be in small bags tied off. Other items like boxes and bottles can be left there loose. They take the bins down to a small room in the car park and sort through it. The bins are then put outside at ground level and the Tessabahn garbage truck picks up the contents each day. The recyclable stuff is stored separately.

As the maids are the ONLY staff in this place who make an effort to do their job I always wash containers out before putting them out in separate bags. Every 2 or 3 months a collector comes in a pickup and I guess buys the recyclable stuff from the maids. As far as I know the maids get to keep the small money.

None of this is dictated by the so called "management" as far as I know, and I know for a fact that most of the "residents" just throw their crap out in the 1 bag.

[laphanphon]

Personally, when not renting, we (the wife) compost what we can, still does, even renting, but nothing wasted when having our own house. The rest, recycled and or burned. Nothing made it to the trash bin for collection, for 2 reason, first, the soi dogs would make a mess. 2nd, us burning is probably better than giving to gov't to burn or dump at sea.

Now since renting, recyclables get given to people strolling by collecting, with the rest getting binned, collected by gov't and adding to the mess. Personally, I'd rather burn, and will when next house is built.

[laphanphon]

Where do you think the rubbish at sea and on the beaches come from? Rains, floods, drains .....!!

Would guess 99 % comes from the gov't dumping in the sea.

The plastic bag littered on Phetkasem rd isn't going make it to the gulf by wind itself. Municipalities, larger one, actully do a decent job of cleaning up the streets....BUT....then goes where ?

Landfill, trucked to barge...then out to...sea. It's not rocket science.

[buksida]

All of which, will still make it to the landfill, and or be dumped in the sea. The one noticeable change, hopefully, is there will be less roadside litter, and that's only cosmetic, as littering plastic bags aren't exactly the environmental crisis, it's just ugly.

Utter bullshit.

Do some research on micro-plastics entering the food chain and resultant health effects before you say its not an environmental crisis. Yes, plastic bags are in fact plastic, they break down into tiny particles of plastic, with all of the other plastic that research has shown is in all seven of our oceans and in most human bodies now.

Personally, I'd rather burn, and will when next house is built.

And if you think burning plastic is the solution have a little read up on dioxins. http://www.wecf.eu/cms/download/2004-20 ... astics.pdf

Would guess 99 % comes from the gov't dumping in the sea.

More utter bullshit.

We have just had another flood down in Bangsaphan and 90% of the shit that went into the sea has been washed off the land where dumbass people have thrown it.

For those still denying plastic is a problem I urge you to watch this instead of spouting more self-righteous crap on here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2401099/





Edit: This thread is about ideas for reducing plastic - lets keep it constructive and not another torrent of "i know everything" posts.

[laphanphon]

I agree, in 'THEORY'.... plastic should be banned. Even the production of it. Then you wouldn't have to worry about disposing it.

But since the gov't disposes, in non eco friendly ways, seriously, what's the point of collecting it, they / gov't just does the same thing, that people think they are preventing.

It still gets dumped at the landfill or sea. And I thought I was being naive.

Chances are, and good chance, if it wasn't washed out to sea by floods, the gov't would have done it anyway.

Staying on topic...

Can't do much more than we already do. Give it to the gov't to dispose off, and we see how that is working.

Plastic bag banning is far from enough. Milk and water / all liquids should be sold in glass bottles only. All paper / box product containers should be of recyclable / recycled paper.

Good luck with all that ever happening.

It would actually be quite easy to control the 'trash problem', but you, we, are talking to the wrong people. Gov't need to ban and or restrict the production of trash, before it hits the shelves to be purchased.

That's just not part of the bottom line of the conglomerates, that sell us the trash. There are very easy and simple solutions, just not profitable ones.

You can skip to 2:30 of the vid to speed along viewing

[lindosfan1]

laphanphon wrote

I agree, in 'THEORY'.... plastic should be banned. Even the production of it. Then you wouldn't have to worry about disposing it.

But since the gov't disposes, in non eco friendly ways, seriously, what's the point of collecting it, they / gov't just does the same thing, that people think they are preventing.

It still gets dumped at the landfill or sea. And I thought I was being naive.

No you are not naive, more plain stupid
Little tiny molecules of plastic get ingested by small sea creatures that goes all the way up the food chain. Whales have been dissected when found dead on the shore hundreds of plastic bags in the stomach they starved to death.There is an area of plastic plastic the size of France floating in the pacific. Wake up research plastic in the ocean, Look for a David Attenborough progRamme on the BBC. That will make you sick when you realise the damage that plastic is doing to the world.

[laphanphon]

Would guess 99 % comes from the gov't dumping in the sea.

More utter bullshit.

We have just had another flood down in Bangsaphan and 90% of the shit that went into the sea has been washed off the land where dumbass people have thrown it.

What percentage of trash in the gulf was from that one storm, compared to what the gov't does with the 150 tons daily, produced in HH.

Granted, every little bit helps .... but seriously. Still guess 99 % is from the gov't.

[buksida]

Gov't need to ban and or restrict the production of trash, before it hits the shelves to be purchased.

That's just not part of the bottom line of the conglomerates, that sell us the trash. There are very easy and simple solutions, just not profitable ones.

Now that I agree with, the rest is tripe.

What percentage of trash in the gulf was from that one storm, compared to what the gov't does with the 150 tons daily, produced in HH.

Granted, every little bit helps .... but seriously. Still guess 99 % is from the gov't.

Still guessing bullshit then until you can prove that the government dumps trash in the Gulf.

Floods dont just happen in Bangsaphan, they happen all over the country and guess where the water and rivers of trash end up.

This thread would be far more productive if people stuck to the science and facts and not their own over inflated opinions.

[lindosfan1]

laphanphon wrote

Granted, every little bit helps .... but seriously. Still guess 99 % is from the gov't.

You guess, provide evidence, are you blaming the government for your own short comings.

[laphanphon]

Little tiny molecules of plastic get ingested by small sea creatures that goes all the way up the food chain.

Then the solution, for all of us, is quite easy, if one cares that much.

Buy all your food needs from the fresh market, and bring your re-usable container with you. Fairly eliminating any one use packaging.

All a bit impractical to do.

The solution is have, eco friendly as possible, incinerators, to burn to energy, anything that isn't actually recycled.

That's not going to happen in our lifetime, or the next couple generations. IMO

Banning one use bags, until the gov't actually disposes of our trash properly, is all a bit of a joke.

If anyone thinks different, than I'm not the stupid one.

laphanphon wrote

Granted, every little bit helps .... but seriously. Still guess 99 % is from the gov't.

You guess, provide evidence, are you blaming the government for your own short comings.

Where do you think, the trash collected, actually goes ?

I follow the rules, and dispose of my trash properly, per gov't rules, now.

Though actually better than what the gov't suggests, when owning house. Renting, well, I have to leave it up to their poor management.

[buksida]

All a bit impractical to do.

Therein lies the problem - human laziness and ignorance and for that I guess as a species we deserve all that we get.

If anyone thinks different, than I'm not the stupid one.

I think you've proved quite the opposite several times on this thread.

[laphanphon]

OK...again

Where do you think, the trash collected, actually goes ?

150 tons a day from HH alone. Does anyone think it stays at the 2 landfills in the HH area that I mentioned already.

If so, we'd be able to see that mountain of trash from our homes.

[buksida]

There is a bigger landfill in Pranburi and a lot of it gets compacted and sent there. I spoke to the head of the Or Por Dor here in Bangsaphan this week and asked that very same question when asking them for some assistance with the local Trash Hero group.

There is more info here so no, they dont dump it in the Gulf: http://infofile.pcd.go.th/waste/AIT060509_sec4.pdf

The biggest problem in Thailand is improper incineration.