Not far from Pattaya, Chonburi province’s Bangsaen beach caters mostly to domestic tourists. It’s garbage, however, comes from many sources. The area’s mayor yesterday posted photos of the beach littered with garbage he said washes ashore regularly in a bid to shine a light on the nation’s environmental problems — the post quickly went viral.
Narongchai Khunpleum, mayor of Saensuk District, wrote that it was not unusual for the garbage — everything from bamboos to plastic bags, rubber bands to straws — to wash ashore, but the problem becomes greatly magnified during the rainy season.
“We’ve always had a problem of garbage washing ashore, but it worsens from June to August because of the storm … This has continuously happened since I was a kid, and there seems to be even a larger amount of garbage now,” Narongchai wrote on Facebook yesterday.
He said he suspects that the plastic waste was dumped into the sea by import ships, but tourists at the beach themselves are also to blame for not disposing of their trash properly.
“I think only 15 to 20 percent of Bangsaen visitors have conscience in preserving the environment, judging from the commonly seen behavior,” he said.
Narongchai said that his administration could continue to clean the beach frequently, but that the poor management of waste needs to be solved at a national level — as Thailand (the world’s 20th-largest country by population) is the world’s sixth-biggest contributor of ocean waste, according to Greenpeace.
Commenters agrees with the mayor, some pointing out that the root of the problem is obvious — that Thai people need to learn to dispose of waste properly.
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