Free eggs, rice for garbage
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The Pollution Control Department (PCD) is offering free eggs and rice to people who turn over used foam food boxes and empty plastic bottles - in a bid to ease the amount of garbage.
“Get one egg if you hand over 20 foam boxes. Get 2 kilos of uncooked rice if you come with 20 plastic bottles,” Rangsan Pinthong said yesterday in his capacity as the chief of the PCD’s Hazardous Waste Disposal Centre.
The scheme has attracted an enthusiastic response. A big crowd was seen waiting to turn garbage into food at a PCD booth in Don Muang yesterday.
“The exchange service will be available at PCD headquarters till November 30,” Rangsan said.
He said the PCD had received a number of complaints about growing garbage piles in inundated areas. The problem is most serious in Bang Phlat.
“It’s also a big problem in Bang Khae, Sai Mai, Don Muang and Phasi Charoen,” Rangsan said.
Flooding has hit the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)’s garbage-collection operations hard. As a result, flood victims have had to live with mountains of garbage in some areas.
The distribution of foam food boxes to flood victims has seen a serious increase in that type of garbage in recent weeks.
PCD deputy director-general Worasas Apaipong believed there would be three million tonnes of garbage to tackle once the flood water subsides.
Rangsan said that for now, his agency was handing out EM (effective micro-organism) liquid to ease the dangers to flood victims posed by |polluted flood water. But he said: “The liquid is effective. Clear results have been seen in Nakhon Sawan and Ayutthaya.”
