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A volunteer sorts plastic bottles and dries them in the sun in Rayong in the eastern Gulf of Thailand

Photo: Andre Malerba / Bloomberg / Getty Images

When you order a coffee in Thailand, it looks like this: The cappuccino is served in a disposable cup with a plastic sleeve so that you don't burn your fingers;

The whole thing comes in a plastic bag so that nothing leaks during transport.

This in turn is put into a larger handle bag, including a plastic straw.

The handle bag, also made of plastic, can then be hung on the outside of the handlebars of the scooter and driven to the office.

Thailand is a plastic paradise – or rather: a plastic hell.

The Southeast Asian country is one of the largest consumers of plastic in the world.

A Thai person uses up to 3,000 disposable bags per year.

In Thailand, the plastic bag is a central means of organizing everyday life.

In the supermarket, apples, avocados and bananas are individually wrapped in plastic wrap.

Bread goes first in the paper bag, then in the plastic bag.

Anyone who buys yogurt is given small plastic spoons without asking.

Anyone who has supermarket orders delivered to their home ends up sitting on a huge mass of plastic packaging.

At the market, women skillfully fill green curry, chicken soups and milky desserts into plastic bags.

»We Thais love plastic things, we are crazy about them.

I think for us it's a sign of civilization, progress and hygiene," says Chompupischaya Saiboonyadis, who everyone calls Sa.

“Plastic is so practical, so cheap!” Sa is 23 years old, studies economics and is one of the representatives of a young generation of Thais who want to change exactly this old thinking – and fight for a clean homeland.

Thailand has long been considered “the garbage dump of the world.”

In addition to its own consumption, it imports waste from western industrialized countries and became a major buyer after China stopped importing plastic and electronic waste almost overnight in 2018.

From then on, plastic from the USA, Japan and Europe polluted the coasts.

At least that should be over now: From 2025, Thailand no longer wants to accept plastic scrap from other countries.

“This is an important step,” says student Sa. “But above all we have to make people aware that plastic is a problem.” It’s not that easy.

Even Sa's friends often look at her strangely when she picks up trash on the street.

“We young Thais hardly learn anything about environmental pollution at school,” she explains during a Zoom call.

“The problem is not abstract, it affects us all.”

Sa now appears at panel discussions and tries to talk to like-minded people on the street and in workshops about how Thai society is damaging nature with its plastic consumption.

They used social media to draw attention to their concern - and are developing ideas such as how the packaging of sanitary napkins can be reused as small bags or how messages about plastic waste can at least be placed there.

“Because very few people know how recycling or waste separation works,” she says.

According to the Pollution Control Department, Thailand has generated up to two million tons of plastic waste annually over the past decade, but only a quarter of that amount, around 500,000 tons, is properly collected and recycled.

50,000 tons of plastic end up in landfills, rivers and the sea.

Around 20 percent of plastic waste comes from the capital Bangkok.

However, according to the World Bank, most of the plastic floating in Thailand's waters comes from smaller towns where there are fewer garbage collections and no proper waste disposal system.

Five years ago, Thai society was shaken up by two dead animals: in a national park near Nan in the north of the country, a deer died with seven kilos of plastic bags in its stomach.

Shortly before that, a baby dugong, a fork-tailed manatee, was found seriously ill near the Thai island of Koh Libong.

Her stomach was full of plastic bags and inflamed.

Many people on social media were worried about the animal.

They named it Mariam.

Mariam died.

And the harmful effects of plastic in Thailand are also becoming more and more obvious for people: residents who live next to plastic recycling plants report a pungent smell, skin rashes and breathing problems.

Human rights activists complain that burning or melting plastic produces toxic gases and that there are hardly any controls.

Plastic is a big problem everywhere on earth.

Between 1950 and 2015, a total of around 8,300 million tonnes were produced worldwide - that is almost four times the biomass of all animals living today.

And because plastic molecules are mostly stable and not biodegradable, most of this plastic still exists today.

A study by the Ocean Conservancy concluded a few years ago that China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia dumped more plastic waste into the oceans than the rest of the world combined.

The Thai government at least wants to tackle the problem: In 2019, the cabinet decided on a "roadmap", a kind of master plan: by 2030, plastic waste should be reduced - and 100 percent recycled.

Thailand wants to agree to a planned United Nations agreement that is intended to stop plastic waste on earth.

The legally binding document could be ready for signature by 2025.

The global debate is certainly having an impact: the supermarket chain 7-Eleven, for example, which can be found on almost every street corner in Thailand, has already announced that it will stop offering free plastic bags.

But this isn't happening fast enough for environmentalists: "The government must finally issue laws that consumers and companies then have to adhere to," says Penchom Saetoang from the organization Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand.

There must be bans on single-use plastic and an obligation to separate waste.

Voluntariness alone is of no use.

Of all things, student and environmental activist Sa believes that the pandemic advanced her cause: everyone had a lot of time to think - and were confronted with mountains of plastic waste when they ordered food home.

»Suddenly more and more influencers spoke up on social media and talked about how to deal with waste well;

where he goes, why he should be separated," says Sa.

She would like large companies and influential people to cooperate with the Thai government - cosmetic brands, fast food chains, prominent singers or actors - to jointly launch campaigns against garbage.

With dance videos for TikTok, for example.

Things like that work well in Thailand.

Initiatives that don't feel like instruction, but like fun.

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