Thailand is one of the top five marine polluters, responsible for 60 percent of plastic in the sea. The others are China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. Not only do they pollute, they are also responsible for the death of ocean inhabitants such as fish and turtles that mistake the plastic for food.
A reason for the action #Deathbyplastic, an initiative of photographer Ben Zander in collaboration with the charity crowdfunding site Weeboon. He wants to raise 400.000 baht for ten photo shoots with celebrities who participate for free. The photos will be exhibited and sold. With the proceeds he wants to buy paper bags to replace the plastic in a number of 7-Elevens in Bangkok.
The campaign features short videos shot at various locations that Ben Zander says clearly portray the story of plastic waste in Thailand.
So far, the campaign has raised 3.500 baht. So extra income is welcome.
Source: Bangkok Post
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQVXM89U534[/embedyt]
About this blogger
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Known as Khun Peter (62), lives alternately in Apeldoorn and Pattaya. In a relationship with Kanchana for 14 years. Not yet retired, have my own company, something with insurance. Crazy about animals, especially dogs and music.
Enough hobbies, but unfortunately little time: writing for Thailandblog, fitness, health and nutrition, shooting sports, chatting with friends and some other oddities.
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Getting the majority of Thais environmentally conscious is an impossible task. This is not in their DNA.
Dear Jacques, you are certainly right that environmental awareness may be a long way off, although this is more advanced, it is still going on in Europe. If they were to start in Thailand with, demanding money at the checkout for every plastic bag, just as this is already happening in many European countries, wouldn't this be the start of a rethink. Of course, this should be made mandatory by the Thai government in a new legislation, and only there it falters.
In the 7-11: You get a plastic spoon with every jar of yogurt, and a straw with every bottle or can of soft drink. For example, if you buy 6 products, you already get at least 3 thin plastic bags. Ask them to use fewer bags, they will look you think you are from another planet. They do collect the tabs of beer and soft drink cans, which generates money. There is of course nothing wrong with this, but where do they put the cans? That's right, that's where they were, and usually they weren't in a garbage can. What do you mean environmentally conscious?
Let me not talk about seagoing ships. 1 of the worst polluters, throw everything into the sea if they get the chance and no one is looking. Is now controlled via satellites, but especially at night people take the risk. Dump that bite. Some is kept to hand over at a port so that the port authorities do not get suspicious. And then there is tank cleaning of tankers at sea, I have experienced it all.
The pollution in Thailand is not only in the sea and next to the beaches, but also often in the countryside and especially in the cities.
Not only the Thai are guilty of this, but also many foreign tourists. They see what the Thai do, believe that it can be done there just like that and therefore also dump their waste in the same way.
As long as there is waste, there will be more waste. That's the clean mentality.
If the government systematically removes the waste and catches and punishes the dischargers (not the English word “losers”, but Dutch; = people who discharge waste, leave it behind), the tide can turn. The government has all kinds of resources (such as the media), but unfortunately clearly has other interests…
It is also striking that the named top 5 is in the same region… The first push to tackle the problem of marine litter must therefore come from the other countries in that region. But would the mentality in those other countries in that region be so different?
What is the point of the initiatives to raise money to start projects to tackle the problems? Nowadays I consider this as mopping with the tap open. In the past I would have given money to that too, but as an older person I notice that some projects (such as for poverty reduction and the preservation of the environment) have been going on for generations and the result is far from being achieved. I see 1 common factor there: the money comes from the common people, while the (super-)rich and the really responsible (including the political and business world) “keep things messed up”… Just a mental change in the political and the economic/corporate world may be able to solve these problems.
But there is still hope…
Sad and hopefully we as tourists can exert pressure to limit the damage.
A small step has been taken with the ban on plastic loops around bottles, but much more can and must be done.
Has anyone ever heard of the name “school”? These appear to be buildings where you can learn something. As long as the teachers themselves do not yet know what the word clean up means, there will be little to do about the mess !! Has anyone ever heard of the name “Municipality”? As long as this authority does not set an example by throwing the junk along the road and they don't care if people can dump the junk properly, the whole of Thailand will remain one big garbage dump, and so will the adjacent seas.
Fortunately, the school is allowed to fix it up again.
I am willing to admit that a school also has a social function.
But all those people who no longer go to school, will in any case no longer be able to raise them.
So the problem will continue to exist for the first 60 years.
The first step must be taken by the Thai government, through information with TV commercials, and amended laws, for example by requiring money for plastic bags and other harmful packaging materials. Most Thais are very proud of their country, so that you could ask in a TV commercial, why are they slowly walking it into a harmful rubbish dump??