Tetsaban Phana Talks Rubbish Every Day

For the last couple of weeks there has only been one topic coming over the loudspeakers of my moo ban at 6.30 am and in more detail over the tetsaban speakers at 8.05 am. RUBBISH!

Following the final assessment day which I blogged about on 10 October (Community Projects in Phana) members of the tetsaban went to the ESCAP building (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) in Bangkok to receive their award. One of the assessors, a Dr Paiboon, is also involved in a project to do with waste management and waste reduction and he was impressed by the work being done in Phana to do with recycling waste and producing fertilizer. So now Phana is the pilot project for Dr Paiboon's scheme.

Curently we are in phase 1 which has involved each moo ban holding meetings with residents to discuss what needs to be done to reduce waste. An early outcome was the decision to recycle plastic bags by washing them and re-using them. What I notice is that every household now has a bunch of clean, used plastic bags pegged up in a prominently visible place. But the bunch doesn't grow and it doesn't shrink. It seems to be just making the statement that the household has done its bit. Unless you are selling something you don't really need to use plastic bags. I suppose at some point (phase x?) someone will come around and pay a small amount for our plastic bag collections, as they already do for old newspapers, beer bottles and cans and cardboard.

I may have mentioned before that when we came back in September we found that the tetsaban had replaced the large wheelie bins they previously supplied with two very small bins, one black and one green. No need to explain the difference. But why so small? Well, it seems that Dr Paiboon or someone whose research he is familiar with, has discovered that the bigger the bin, the more rubbish is disposed of. And the second discovery is that if you leave bins in the road, a lot of litter accumulates around them. Dogs? Cats? Other creatures? The wind (from China)? It does seem to be true. But Phana was already one of the cleanest places I've ever been (outside Austria). Anyway, we no longer leave bins permanently in the road, but put them out each night for very early morning collection. Lucky the bins are smaller, in fact.

December 4, the eve of the King's birthday, is going to be an environmentally clean and friendly day throughout Thailand, I believe. Here we are going to have a parade with the theme of "NO BINS". Difficult to imagine that there will be much to it other than people walking around without any bins, which is what we all do every day. But I will be proved wrong, because when it comes to parades, Phana excels itself and comes up with a seemingly endless variety of costumes etc. as well as the obligatory beautiful young women leading the procession. I've nothing against that, even if the young women did have to get up at 4 am to have their hair and make-up done.

Just last night there was the sound of strange beating coming from Moo 8. It wasn't the usual sound of drum beats so I can only assume that it was the sound of bins being beaten.

December 4 will also mark the beginning of Phase 2 of the project, so expect an update, as well as photos of the parade.

Meanwhile, here are some photos of the presentation made to Tetsaban Phana in Bangkok. I wasn't there, so thanks to the tetsaban for the pictures.

This was the occasion. KPI stands for King Prajadhipok's Institute. 

 

These were the sponsors:

 

The mayor of Tetsaban Phana, Khun Phachoenlab Intarachan, receives the trophy:

 

And here he proudly holds the trophy and the citation outside the building:

 

 

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence its nice to see some positive action especially regarding plastic bags. I can only assume the folk up your way have a different attitude to the rubbish tip I live in.

Even the well meaning folk who burn the plastic haven't a clue on the toxic smoke we then all breath due to their tidying up!

Rubbish is a big issue in Thailand, but apart from local schemes like yours seems to be on the backburner.

[Liew]

The idea of having 2 smaller bins is a bit odd. Just gonna have to wait and see if they work. I do agree with you that Phana is one of the cleanest place I've ever been!

[Lawrence]

Mike, I'd say in general Thailand is a lot cleaner now than when I first came here. I've been thinking over why Phana is so clean and I plan to blog about it in a while.

Liew, I think the psychology of it is that it forces you to start sorting out what does NOT need to go in there -- the recyclable stuff like paper, cardboard etc. Also, since we can't now leave the bin out permanently it has to be small enough to carry out easily. Only works with a daily collection, though, which is what we get. So no littering when you next get here!