Here is a sobering statistic that, perhaps, could lead us to rethink our daily behaviour. The Pollution Control Department says the number of styrofoam lunch boxes that Thais dump into the environment comes to 61 million a day. This is a record.
It equates to more than 400 million a week; 1.8 billion a month. We will have mountains of Styrofoam in a very short time unless something is done.
The number, while stunning, is no big surprise. It's all about the changes in our lifestyle in the modern age.
We must accept this. Few people, unlike in our parents' time, can afford to cook, at least not in their everyday lives. Most office workers eat outside their homes.
While their choices can vary, ranging from street food vendors, office canteens or restaurants, the choice of food container is limited. Non-disposable, non-polluting lunch boxes such as the old pinto or tiffin carrier from our parents' time have become a thing of the past.
It's obvious the plastic foam lunch boxes are convenient for quick lunches such as chicken rice or rice topped with fried pork. Besides, these foam boxes' white colour seems to give the impression the containers are hygienic, which is not true.
In fact, we are occasionally told foam containers can be hazardous to our health due to a cancer-causing substance called styrene. Yet, people just shrug off the warnings.
Unlike plastic bags which can be reused (though if you ask me, not using one is the best for the environment) this foam container is a one-time-use item. It cannot be reused for food.
But at the rate of 61 million boxes a day, Styrofoam is an environmental disaster and it's purely a man-made one.
Waste is a headache for any big city. And this does not mean only growing demand for new dump sites to accommodate huge amounts of waste each day. The headache is about difficult waste items, such as plastic and electronic component waste that can taint the environment. This also seems to be increasing in volume.
When it comes to waste management, we cannot afford to wait for the state to handle it alone. People's participation can make the issue easier.
Look at Bangkok. Saleng scavengers have played a key role in reducing household waste that would go to city landfills. These people can earn money from trash while helping to ease the pressure on the city as land for new dump sites become scarce.
But saleng cannot operate well without green-conscious people in the household sector as it requires stringent waste sorting, mostly paper and glass, to make recycling complete.
But 61 million foam lunch boxes a day present a new challenge.
First of all, we need to find ways to reuse them, perhaps in the construction industry? If this is possible, we need to put in place a system that ensures efficient transport of the items, from the lunch table to the industry.
Anyhow, we face the immediate need to reduce the use of these foam boxes. And this can be achieved through stringent campaigns that can make people aware of the environmental threat, encouraging everybody to avoid them and to look for an environmentally friendly alternative. People must learn to live with some inconvenience.
We need to make people realise that we need a strong, aggressive campaign similar to that for krathong floats which over the years has reduced the use of foam materials during the full moon festival. Thanks to aggressive campaigns by City Hall and the people's sector, natural products have become more marketable as revellers opt for "green" floats.
As we cannot ban them, how about a tax mechanism to make these foam lunch boxes more expensive so people might think twice before they buy them?
Of course, one single measure may never work. We need to do many things at the same time to achieve this. When it comes to waste, it's everybody's business.
And we must start now.
Here is a sobering statistic that, perhaps, could lead us to rethink our daily behaviour. The Pollution Control Department says the number of styrofoam lunch boxes that Thais dump into the environment comes to 61 million a day. This is a record.
It equates to more than 400 million a week; 1.8 billion a month. We will have mountains of Styrofoam in a very short time unless something is done.
The number, while stunning, is no big surprise. It's all about the changes in our lifestyle in the modern age.
We must accept this. Few people, unlike in our parents' time, can afford to cook, at least not in their everyday lives. Most office workers eat outside their homes.
While their choices can vary, ranging from street food vendors, office canteens or restaurants, the choice of food container is limited. Non-disposable, non-polluting lunch boxes such as the old pinto or tiffin carrier from our parents' time have become a thing of the past.
It's obvious the plastic foam lunch boxes are convenient for quick lunches such as chicken rice or rice topped with fried pork. Besides, these foam boxes' white colour seems to give the impression the containers are hygienic, which is not true.
In fact, we are occasionally told foam containers can be hazardous to our health due to a cancer-causing substance called styrene. Yet, people just shrug off the warnings.
Unlike plastic bags which can be reused (though if you ask me, not using one is the best for the environment) this foam container is a one-time-use item. It cannot be reused for food.
But at the rate of 61 million boxes a day, Styrofoam is an environmental disaster and it's purely a man-made one.
Waste is a headache for any big city. And this does not mean only growing demand for new dump sites to accommodate huge amounts of waste each day. The headache is about difficult waste items, such as plastic and electronic component waste that can taint the environment. This also seems to be increasing in volume.
When it comes to waste management, we cannot afford to wait for the state to handle it alone. People's participation can make the issue easier.
Look at Bangkok. Saleng scavengers have played a key role in reducing household waste that would go to city landfills. These people can earn money from trash while helping to ease the pressure on the city as land for new dump sites become scarce.
But saleng cannot operate well without green-conscious people in the household sector as it requires stringent waste sorting, mostly paper and glass, to make recycling complete.
But 61 million foam lunch boxes a day present a new challenge.
First of all, we need to find ways to reuse them, perhaps in the construction industry? If this is possible, we need to put in place a system that ensures efficient transport of the items, from the lunch table to the industry.
Anyhow, we face the immediate need to reduce the use of these foam boxes. And this can be achieved through stringent campaigns that can make people aware of the environmental threat, encouraging everybody to avoid them and to look for an environmentally friendly alternative. People must learn to live with some inconvenience.
We need to make people realise that we need a strong, aggressive campaign similar to that for krathong floats which over the years has reduced the use of foam materials during the full moon festival. Thanks to aggressive campaigns by City Hall and the people's sector, natural products have become more marketable as revellers opt for "green" floats.
As we cannot ban them, how about a tax mechanism to make these foam lunch boxes more expensive so people might think twice before they buy them?
Of course, one single measure may never work. We need to do many things at the same time to achieve this. When it comes to waste, it's everybody's business.
And we must start now.
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