HONG KONG – Authorities in Thailand have taken an unconventional approach to dealing with visitors who leave tent-filled tents in a national park: send trash to offenders.
The country’s environment minister said he wanted to focus on the waste problem in Khao Yai National Park that puts animals at risk of eating waste while forging for food. He vowed to find anyone responsible for the trash in the park in a Facebook post last week.
Minister Varavat Silpa-Archa said in the post, “I will take a single piece of your garbage, pack it well in the bins and send it to your house as a souvenir.” He also posted photos of the delivery box containing used plastic water bottles, soda cans, torn packs of chips and a transparent trash can full of sunflower seeds.
Thai officials said they had actually sent the trash cans to the campers who had left the trash. The special package came with an instructional message for the group, which has been blacklisted to prevent them from returning to the park for an overnight visit.
“You forgot your luggage at Cao Ya National Park,” read a note to the campers, which was not publicly identified, was placed on a clear trash can. “Please give us this back to you.”
The move by Thai authorities comes amid global efforts to reduce the environmental impact of waste and control the use of plastics. In countries such as Indonesia and Spain, activists are sounding more and more alarms as the waste oceans seen in the bellies of dead whales continue.
The Great Pacific Waste Patch, for example, covers an estimated surface area of 617,764 square miles, twice the size of Texas. Scientists have studied five well-known galaxies: one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean and two in the Pacific.
Some cities have banned the use of plastic straws and single-use plastic bags. (Thailand also banned bags this year.) But efforts to eradicate plastic bags during the coronavirus epidemic have led to an increase in home delivery of food.
In recent years, waste has also become a political issue, while some countries in Asia and Africa have not continued to accept trash sent from countries in the West.
In 2017, China banned imports of some scrap metals, paper and plastics. Other countries, such as Malaysia and Kenya, also refused to be offshore landfills for the developed world by banning the import of waste and discarded clothing.
Anti-dispersal campaigns have been at the forefront in many cities for decades, while Thailand’s approach is uncommon for individuals to be targeted with shameful reminders of their misdeeds.
In the case of abandoned tents, some detective work involving matching garbage campers was involved. In a memo posted on Facebook, the government agency responsible for the park said last week it had begun investigating complaints about campers posted last Monday in a public camping group on the platform.
Following the tip, park officials found the campers after finding cross-referencing equipment rental forms and a prescription bottle from the tent.
The message that officers intended to send does not end with trash mail to offenders. Citing two incidents of littering and drunkenness by different campers, Environment Minister Shri Varvut said in his post that the campers violating the park rules would be reported to the police.
Strolling in a Thai national park carries a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $ 16,000.
“You can only take two things from our parks,” Mr. Varavut wrote on Facebook. “Those are memories and photos. Just leave a footprint behind. ”
