Thailand to reduce use of plastic bags, sterofoam, and straws by 2022

[rooster59]

Thailand to reduce use of plastic bags, sterofoam, and straws by 2022

supawadee wangsri

 

 

BANGKOK, 7 June 2019 (NNT) - On the occasion of World Environment Day, government agencies have organized activities to encourage people to place importance on solving haze and pollution problems, while 80 percent of the use of plastic cap seals has been instigated. The use of all plastic cap seals is expected to be outlawed by 2019.

 

Three working groups on supporting the management of plastic waste have been formed to operate according to the goal of discontinuing the unnecessary use of plastic which creates an impact on the environment. They include plastic cap seals on bottles of drinking water and plastic products that contain oxo degradable plastics and microbeads.

 

In almost a year, five major drinking water producers have discontinued the use of plastic cap seals starting on April 1, 2018. They account for up to 80 percent of all plastic cap seals. The remaining 20 percent of plastic cap seals are from small producers. They will completely discontinue the use of plastic cap seals by late 2019. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a ban on the production, import and selling of cosmetics containing microbeads. As for the control of plastic products with oxo degradable plastics, the FDA will later consider making an announcement on the prohibition of importing, producing and selling oxo-degradable plastics under the relevant laws.

 

There is also a move to cancel of the use of plastic bags, sterofoam boxes, plastic cups and plastic straws by 2022. A campaign to discontinue the use of single-use plastic at department stores, supermarkets and convenience stores, by refraining from giving away plastic bags, is already active on the 4th day of each month and offers extra points to customers who decline to take a plastic bag for their purchases.

 

 

-- © Copyright nnt 2019-06-09

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[brokenbone]

while a very important step in thailand,

it is also nigh impossible.

i just dont see how you can change the entire culture revolving

around picking up street food & drinks in plastic bags, or 7/11 for that matter.

mission impossible lest an organic material

can be used as substitute for plastic bags.

is there even an organic material that can hold soup without leaking ?

[khwaibah]

38 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

The use of all plastic cap seals is expected to be outlawed by 2019.

BULL SHIT. Still getting em on our water supply. As for the bags and straws that's another BS.

[Tagged]

Ban on plastic, just 50 years to late! 

[Lungstib]

Not sure why there is so much emphasis on the small cap seal when the whole bottle is often thrown out a vehicle and left lying on the roadside verge. Like Brokenbone above I only envisage a real improvement if a material that will safely decompose in a few months is found to replace plastic.

[cooked]

I recently saw a school bus stop next to a "no littering" sign, with picture for those that can't read, and a kid got out and threw a rubbish bag down the bank. 

I rest my case.

[Sealbash]

Any journey starts with a single step.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[wayned]

The first thing that should be done is make the large grocery stores stop using any bags at all at check out, like Makro, and sell cloth bags at the checkout stand.  I have three bags that I load as I sjhop in Tesco and the checout clerk rings up each bag separately and "we" reload it.  It keeps what I want separated, separated; cold food in one bag food easily damage in another and the rest in the other.  I shopped yesterday and there were no plastic bags other than those used for fresh meat and vegetables.  II keep the bags in the car and use them all of the time, even att 7-11.

 

It would also increase employment since it would  require that they go back to having guards at the parking lot entrances to keep the Thais from loading up the trolley into the back of their pickup.  That's gotta be the reason that Makro still has guards or there would be no trolleys.

[bluesofa]

1 hour ago, khwaibah said:

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The use of all plastic cap seals is expected to be outlawed by 2019.

BULL SHIT. Still getting em on our water supply. As for the bags and straws that's another BS.

I'm not defending it, perhaps it's old stock?

Also what's with the 'expected to be outlawed', - we're halfway through 2019 already?

Does that mean it's not law - not that any law means much here. We've got more unenforced laws than you could shake a biodegradable stick at.

[Peterbkk99]

I think the only long term, sustainable solution would be to find a substitute for plastic that is environmentally friendly. Because people here just won't stop littering. 

The other day I was driving on the motorway between Bangkok and Pattaya (highway 7). I was struck by the roadside litter (plastic bottles, plastic bags, sterofoam, Redbull bottles etc...) concentrated between 5 and 15 kilometers past the motorway service center. Motorists just throw their litter out of the car window when they are finished. No F*cks given

 

[madmitch]

Put a hefty tax on styrofoam containers. That'll soon get the vendors to change to cardboard.

 

 

[wayned]

I've noticed that the local morning Kho Tom vendors in the small town near me  are using cardboard containers rather than the old Styrofoam bowls.

[30la]

Let's stop NOW! What's the point of waiting until 2022 ???

[fxe1200]

If the government would be serious about their goals, they would not have said 2022. Instead they would prohibit the production, sales and the import of such plastics immediately. As Thailand is run by greedy capitalists, alternatives to single use plastic and styrofoam would be up for sale in no time. PE Containers with a decent seal could be used to hold and carry soup or food, similar to the bigger jars for ice cream i.e from WALLs.

[hotchilli]

7 hours ago, rooster59 said:

On the occasion of World Environment Day, government agencies have organized activities to encourage people to place importance on solving haze and pollution problems, while 80 percent of the use of plastic cap seals has been instigated. The use of all plastic cap seals is expected to be outlawed by 2019

Encourage people.... will have zero response!

The best the government can do is ban the use of plastic top seals !!!!!

[masuk]

7 hours ago, khwaibah said:

BULL SHIT. Still getting em on our water supply. As for the bags and straws that's another BS.

This will solve the problem!

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-09/drain-sock-kwinana-pollution-solution-takes-world-by-storm/11190266

[mike787]

Perfect!!! After we get rid of all the farang and plastic Thailand will be clean.  No more problems. Excellent!

[khunPer]

More important would be to teach folks to stop throwing their used plastic and styrofoam – and other stuff too – the wrong places, but dispose of it in proper garbage bins.

[wayned]

1 minute ago, khunPer said:

More important would be to teach folks to stop throwing their used plastic and styrofoam – and other stuff too – the wrong places, but dispose of it in proper garbage bins.

You just don't get it.  At the same time that they were taught to wwash their ass they were taught to throw the trash on the ground.  They still wash their ass, don't they?

[connda]

First off - stop blaming consumers for the plastic problem.  The sole blame lies with The Petro-Chemical industry that manufactures this crap and then pushes for it's use - it's about money and profits folks.  But those in the supply chain are also culprits.  It's cheaper for retailers to use single use plastic instead of alternatives like paper.  
There are two ways to end the problem quickly.

First - ban single use plastics products

Second - ban single use plastics products

 

Then incentivize  the use of personal cloth bags at stores, but also offer paper; or pass legislation that simply says, "Bring your own bags to the store." Period.

Why will this not happen?  Because both the Petro-Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing Industry and their monied lobbies, and the corporate retailers and their monied lobbies intervene to convince those who make the laws that it would be in the interests of said law makers to not implement those bans.  Can you hear that sound?  Listen...  Cha-Ching!!!  Lobbying is simply legalize graft and corruption.  But!!! It's legal by golly - so corporate entities ride rough-shod over the planet while their corporate main-stream media outlets blame consumers.  

Strange (and screwed up) world we live in.  The average clones don't understand at all.  

[Isaanbiker]

Is it possible that it's just one of these "wannabe news"?

 

  There's the time when they thought it would become THE educational hub in SEA, while the educational system's quality even decreased. 

[55Jay]

All good, moving in the right direction but have to keep up the momentum and actually do it.  Probably like the US, will have to start charging for plastics as the first step.  The high-minded Save the Earth crusade, on its own, won't be enough.

 

Fits and starts in my city.  In Tops the other day, wife said they had done away with plastic bags, or were supposed to (I don't know).  I did see a sign hung over the queue we checked out in.  "Green" check out lane, which I took to mean no plastic bags would be used.  But they were.

 

Went to a new, medium sized Tesco about 30k outside the city yesterday - sufficiently far so that all this progressive "townie" stuff doesn't penetrate.  We gave the young bagger girl our cloth bag, then I wandered away as the wife did the business.  They put items in plastic bag then put that into our cloth bag. ????

[james.d]

Seriously, how long will these agencies keep banging on about reducing plastic waste. I went to my local Tesco about 4 months and got a paper bag and I thought "great".. The bags were never seen again and they still try to double up a plastic bags to carry home 2 bottles of milk. I kept the bag as a souvenir.

Go to my local market and people buy kanom for 20 baht and get them in a cling wrapped stryophome tray inside a plastic bag.

Sorry but these agencies are plastic also lMHO.

I have said before..over 10 yes ago I was working in Bangladesh and my weekly shopping I was given a cloth bag for free.

[Pedrogaz]

Why wait until 2022? Why pollute for the next 3 1/2 years.....how about getting on with it and making it happen this year....make styrofoam, plastic straws and bags illegal and have people go to the absolutely awful trouble of bringing a shopping bag or using a paper bag for shopping or paper/foil carton for wet food, recyclable glass or tins for carbonated and soft drinks? They are all available now as I write this. And if anyone brings up the poor plastics manufacturers will lose profits, I think I'll scream

[wobalt]

Let's stop NOW! What's the point of waiting until 2022 ???

Because it is a copy of the EU policy.


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[Black arab]

Our village head man comes over the loudspeaker system the other day ,from now on no one is allowed to take their rubbish to the designated rubbish dump due to people taking all kinds of crap there. From now on we have to burn all plastic, polystyrene, whatever in the village, where i said ,upto you i was told. What does spidermike say .. Thai going backwards at a rate of knots.

[rabas]

1 hour ago, connda said:

First off - stop blaming consumers for the plastic problem.  The sole blame lies with The Petro-Chemical industry that manufactures this crap and then pushes for it's use - it's about money and profits folks.  But those in the supply chain are also culprits.  It's cheaper for retailers to use single use plastic instead of alternatives like paper.  
There are two ways to end the problem quickly.

First - ban single use plastics products

Second - ban single use plastics products

 

Then incentivize  the use of personal cloth bags at stores, but also offer paper; or pass legislation that simply says, "Bring your own bags to the store." Period.

Why will this not happen?  Because both the Petro-Chemical/Plastics Manufacturing Industry and their monied lobbies, and the corporate retailers and their monied lobbies intervene to convince those who make the laws that it would be in the interests of said law makers to not implement those bans.  Can you hear that sound?  Listen...  Cha-Ching!!!  Lobbying is simply legalize graft and corruption.  But!!! It's legal by golly - so corporate entities ride rough-shod over the planet while their corporate main-stream media outlets blame consumers.  

Strange (and screwed up) world we live in.  The average clones don't understand at all.  

It's product manufactures and marketing lizards that cause the biggest problems. They maximize profits by selling  mountains of cheap plastic disposable products and products guaranteed to fail so we keep buying more. Its incredible how much plastic we throw out per month. When people argue products don't last, I tell them to pick up my 90 year old rotary dial phone and make a call.

 

One solution is very long life products but too many companies would go bankrupt and GDPs would tank.

 

Houston, we have a problem.

 

[dcnx]

Sure. Right after they enforce their northern burn ban.

[balo]

12 hours ago, rooster59 said:

There is also a move to cancel of the use of plastic bags, sterofoam boxes, plastic cups and plastic straws by 2022.

 

 

So how are the locals going to buy their food and carry with them now ? In bamboo bags? 

[stanleycoin]

Thailand talks the talk, so mut,  but very often,  never walks the walk.