A 50 percent cut in plastic garbage in 9 years

Straws, beach trash and plastic bags. Thailand seems to be on a head on collision to tackle these issues, at last. To realise how difficult it will be to turn around a society that uses so much plastic daily – a recent survey suggest that the average Thai uses 8 disposable plastic bags every day – you only have to wait outside any convenience store and see that amount of throw-away plastic that’s used to package almost everything inside, even fresh fruit!

Thai PBS English is reporting that Thailand aims to reduce plastic in the seas by 50 percent in the next nine years and to cut down the use of plastic bags among the Thai people to only two bags per person per day instead of an average of eight plastic bags a day, said Mr Chatuporn Burutpat, director-general of Marine and Coastal Resources Department, on Saturday.

Citing the recent death of a pilot whale in the sea of Songkhla after having swallowed eight kilogrammes of plastic bags into its stomach as an inspiration for change about the use of plastic bags, he said the department had mapped out short-term, medium-term and long-term measures to cut back the amount of trash dumped into seas.

According to plan, the short-term measure concerns cooperation among Asean member countries to reduce the amount of trash in the seas in the region as agreed at a meeting held in November last year. Mr Chatuporn said his department would cooperation with civic groups to solve the problem of garbage on beaches.

The rest of the story HERE.