Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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buksida
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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plastic oceans.jpg
plastic oceans.jpg (82.33 KiB) Viewed 2610 times

What Happens to the Plastic We Throw Out
How a piece of trash can travel from land to Henderson Island, an uninhabited, remote island in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean

Southeast Asia the biggest polluters.


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/maga ... the-globe/
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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There is something seriously wrong with the mentality of most of the Asian populations to continue to allow this to happen, and worse, increase! Maybe they should import a dictator that does this:

http://www.designindaba.com/articles/cr ... -free-zone

Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali, is the cleanest city in Africa. The litter-free streets and manicured gardens paint a completely different picture to the derelict African cities portrayed in the media. At the end of August, the Kigali city office began the implementation of its car-free zone policy that aims to ban all cars from the CBD.

This is the most recent in a long line of mandates that have been employed to drive the clean up of the city – and it all seems to come from the top. Rwandan President Paul Kagame runs a tight ship and is an active advocate for green living. By banning the manufacture and use of plastic bags, promoting anti-littering habits and hosting a mandatory community clean-up once a month, the local government has succeeded in breeding a culture of eco-conscious citizens.
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by StevePIraq »

In my opinion this is true, Asian states and people do seem to have a mental block when it comes to pollution in general.

I have worked in a number of African countries and some have much more advanced processes in place than Asia.

Uganda has had no plastic bags for years and the system works, the rivers and streams are relatively clean considering that most of the population are poor and there is limited refuse collection outside of major cities. Kenya banned plastic bags last year https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... ic-bag-ban

Strange how Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia all who have much more developed economies are unable to implement anything.
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buksida
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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I call it 'trash blindness'.

Asians seem to look at plastic and trash as if it belongs where it is on the floor or in the river - they look past it and see it as part of the surroundings.

In the west, and now Africa, it is looked upon as a scourge that shouldn't be on the floor or in the rivers and seas - hence greater efforts to prevent it and clean up.
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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This is what it leads to:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Whale dies after swallowing 80 plastic bags

https://au.news.yahoo.com/whale-dies-sw ... 11952.html

WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: A whale has died in southern Thailand after swallowing more than 80 plastic bags, officials said, ending an attempted rescue that failed to nurse the mammal back to health.

Thailand is one of the world’s largest consumers of plastic bags, which kill hundreds of marine creatures living near the country’s popular beaches each year.

The small male pilot whale became the latest victim after it was found barely alive in a canal near the border with Malaysia, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said on their Facebook page on Saturday.

A veterinary team tried “to help stabilise its illness but finally the whale died” on Friday afternoon, the post said.

An autopsy revealed 80 plastic bags weighing up to eight kilograms in the creature’s stomach, the department added.
Photos accompanying the post showed a group of people using buoys to keep the whale afloat after it was first spotted on Monday and an umbrella to shield it from the scorching sun.

The whale vomited up five bags during the rescue attempt before it died, the department said.

Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine biologist and lecturer at Kasetsart University, said the bags had made it impossible for the whale to eat any nutritional food.
“If you have 80 plastic bags in your stomach, you die,” he said.

At least 300 marine animals including pilot whales, sea turtles and dolphins perish each year in Thai waters after ingesting plastic, Thon told AFP.

“It’s a huge problem,” he said.
“We use a lot of plastic.”

The pilot whale’s plight generated sympathy and anger among the Thai community.
“I feel sorry for the animal that didn’t do anything wrong but has to bear the brunt of human actions,” one Twitter user wrote in Thai.
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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And when this is related to a Thai the answer is usually "Mai pen rai"
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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Here comes the expected knee jerk reaction again because of worldwide publication of the story of the dead whale loaded with plastic bags. Wait for it, I expect "steps" to be announced shortly, followed by silence on the subject once again in a few months. One if these times I hope I'm wrong and long term programs are finally initiated. Pete


Dead whale sparks marine fears

Plastic waste chokes ecological system
Published: 5/06/2018 at 04:00 AM
Newspaper section: News https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... rine-fears

The death of a male short-finned pilot whale with a shocking number of plastic bags in its stomach in Songkhla province has sparked grave concerns about marine debris and the threat it poses to the marine ecological system.

The whale died on Friday, a few days after it ran aground in Chana district on May 28, and drew wide public attention to yet another case of a marine animal ingesting human refuse after 80 plastic bags, weighing about 8kg, were found in its stomach.

As a result, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources is seizing on this opportunity to raise public awareness about marine litter, especially plastics, which are known to be responsible for the deaths of seabirds and marine mammals.

Jatuporn Buruspat, the department's director-general, said on Friday, which was also World Ocean Day, the agency will meet those in the plastic bag supply chain, including producers and users, to discuss how they can work to curb the amount of plastic that ends up in the sea."............... (More story and some graphs at link)
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buksida
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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Thailand, typically reactive once again, it takes a dead whale to get this issue into people's heads - but sadly it will be out of them just as quick while they go to markets and load up on styrofoam boxes with plastic spoons in plastic bags in plastic bags in plastic bags ...

Bangkokians asked: how are you helping to cut plastic use?

As the globe prepared to celebrate World Environment Day, The Nation took to the streets to interview Bangkok residents about what they’re doing to help protect their planet.

In line with this year’s theme of “Beat Plastic Pollution”, the interviews focused on actions being taken to reduce the use of plastic and polystyrene foam materials. Many people knew that it takes years – actually it takes more than 100 years – for plastic trash to completely disintegrate.

Meanwhile, several street vendors interviewed by The Nation hadn’t yet made an effort to reduce their plastic or foam use.

One vendor who declined to give his name said he was unsure how he could help reduce plastic and foam trash. He said he didn’t even know how many one-use containers he used per day. Another vendor, who also requested anonymity, said that he just sold his product without thinking about plastic and foam trash, although he estimated he gave away 50-100 plastic bags a day.


http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... s/30346970
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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I'm looking for small ways to reduce my plastic use.

I was struggling in 2 areas: cottonbuds & drinking straws

Was at Pae Mai market last week and found a pack of 2 stainless steel drinking straws with their own little long bendy brush to clean the inside. 200 baht.

At 2 straws used a day in my home that should save me wasting 700odd plastic straws in a year
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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^ thanks... what about the cotton buds?

I know you get the large wooden pharmaceutical types at the pharmacies but what about the domestic type? They must be common in the U.K. now as there is talk of banning the plastic ones.

I would like to hear some more proactive responses from forum members. What do you do to cut-down on plastic waste.. ??
Personally I find it very hard to really cut down.

I avoid plastic bottles and wash the ones I do end up buying.
I have a water filter and refill the large plastic water bottles I have had for a while.
Take my lifetime bags to the supermarket... Mrs. GN is also shows signs of improvement in this area.
Say no to plastic bags when I don't really need them. The ones I do take get used as garbage bags.
Top-up my shampoo, body-wash & fabric softener bottles with the refill plastic bags.
Avoid any produce that is sold in one-time use plastics... this one is the real killer to avoid.

:cheers:
GN.

Edit: a lot of the posts on this thread don't exactly fit into the title.
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buksida
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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One thing you can do with your household plastic waste - which is almost unavoidable - is make eco-bricks out of it.

I posted on them back on the first page of this thread: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35410#p451386
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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Concerning plastic shopping bags, it dawned on me recently that we can do the same that Makro makes us do, at every grocery store. There's nothing stopping us telling the check out clerks at Villa, TOPS, Foodland, Tesco etc., to simply put the items loose back into your cart after price scan. Then to the car and load into a box, private carrier bags, cooler of some type. The same that we have no choice but to do when shopping at Makro. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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As I mentioned somewhere before, I was raised with hard cardboard shaft cotton buds (Q-Tips) and paper straws. Those are two things I would expect to see back in use before too long due to all the focus and print on those particular items. Pete :cheers:
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

Post by MDMK »

My friend sent me an email about non plastic toothbrushes and cottonbuds. They are instead made of bamboo. They were too pricey still for me. But like others said... it's only a question of time and mass production before the price falls.
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Re: Tips for recycling and reducing plastic use in Thailand

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^ are they available in Thailand though? Do you have more information?
I would be prepared to pay a bit more for them.
Thanks,
GN.
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