Clean up Thailand day .

This Thai project is still in its infancy I imagine and well done to those individuals and community groups that participated.

I wasnt aware of it, otherwise, I would have done something. I always see the beaches covered in bottles, and waste wrappings etc , and sadly these are all beaches frequented by expats ! Yes there is the fishing rubbish in with all that, but new PET bottles dropped by expats is NO excuse.

Changing peoples behaviour is not easy and Rome certainly wasnt built in a day, but with community comittmemnt, some rubbish will be reduced.

Perhaps next year the Expats of Udon could join forces to clean up 1 area of neglect in the Udon Province and set an example ??

jackspratt wrote:I have started doing my bit already, wazz.

When I first moved here, every kid (not just family) moving up and down the soi would just drop rubbish, ice cream papers etc etc. Took very little time for some education and instruction for them to go back, pick up the rubbish, and put it in the bin, to get through.

They pretty much use the bin as a matter of course now.

So jackspratt, I'm genuinely interested to know how you went about educating the neighbors. Did you just do your part to set the right example and they caught on, or did you actually confront those that were being negligent? If so, how did they receive the correction initially? Did you approach them, or did you have you wife discuss the issues with them?

Ive kwaied to think of one Jack, but cant.....'

Well done on the education issues.

Problem for some the local communities , emptying the bins on a daily basis in all the public areas, getting people to use the bins will be easier than getting them emptied by local authorities.... They will see their participation as providing the bins.

My mate opened up a small shop and internet cafe adjoining which is opposite a primary school, and I mentioned the litter issues with all the small products they sell to the kids, he put in a major rubbish bin outside and made the kids use it. Its full every day and he assumes responsibility to empty it, just his small way of improving / making changes to litter behaviour.

jackspratt wrote:Haven't seen any around Ban Dung, Val - maybe we have traded off bins for booze.

I will ask the Ms Spratt tonight if they are available here. I assume they are emptied by hand, rather than the compactor trucks with the automated pick-up forks.

My comment re the soi dogs stands.

Agree with you on the dogs and yet I am a dog lover. Trouble in Thailand is not bad dogs bur bad owners . The refuse trucks are the compactor variety but the bins are hoisted by man power .

I think His Majesties emphasise was actually on drugs rather than rubbish. Here in NWS though, we left it to the kids and the individual school to choose what they saw as a problem that needs attention .Most did actually go for a drug related theme and I can't remember a single entry about rubbish . That may be because we have an administration that already takes care of that . For example ,as well as the bins we have regular road sweepers parading the district and a street awareness scheme. This works by appointing one person in each area to be responsible for that area .I am the one for my soi . Each area is given from time to time a sum of money to purchase plants, trees etc. This is allocated to each household for improvements to the stretch outside their property.This works very well because there is on the spot local control ,where from City Hall it would be difficult to monitor .It is all done on a co-operation basis with everyone joining in, after all , no one wants a bollocking from a farang Being close to a school we do get passing kids dropping rubbish who have to be shown the bins and one problem was the ice cream salemen, but even he now tells the kids to put the wrappers in a bag he keeps on his bike .

this is a social responsiblity issue. It appears to me, that overall, most Thais are not socially conscious. As TrueBrit points out, when anti-littering is pushed by the community, most people will participate after a few nudges. When driving around the province, you can see some villages that are spotless with neatly trimmed hedges, no trash and just very pleasing to the eye.. Others, look like there must be forests of platic bag trees that have lost their bags.. My nephew's village is one such trashy place.. When I talked to him about it, he just doesn't see it as anything to worry about.. "It's not THAT bad" he says.. His children are equally oblivious... Either side of the issue appears to revolve around leadership and setting good examples for people to follow..