A country addicted to plastic

Tesco-Lotus recently ran full-page advertisements in the English-language media, in which it proclaimed a campaign to stop the use of plastic bags. “No plastic bags,” it thundered in bold headlines. But that is all it is: an advertising/PR campaign.

Here in Rayong, the staff at Tesco-Lotus continue putting things like melons, pineapples and other fruit and vegetables, which have natural protective skins, into plastic bags before weighing them and sticking on the price tag. Even bunches of grapes, which are already wrapped in plastic, are put into another plastic bag before being weighed and tagged. 

At the checkout counters, plastic bags are used with mindless abandon: a loaf of bread in one, a carton of milk in another, even a packet of cigarettes or a bar of chocolate go into another smaller plastic bag.

Several years ago, before they were ever heard of in Thailand, I bought many cheap “eco-friendly” cloth supermarket bags back from a trip to Australia. The first time I tried to use them, the security man wanted me to lodge them with baggage and not take them into the store. I persisted, but even today I am viewed as a novelty when I arrive to do my shopping with three or four of my own cloth bags.

On many occasions I have had to forcibly demand that staff do not put my purchases in plastic bags, even to the extent that, when they ignore me, I tear open the bag, take off the price tag, hand back the plastic and go to the checkout counter with the goods and price tag in my hand.

I am not singling out Tesco-Lotus here. In my experience all the other supermarkets and convenience stores have the same mentality.

David Brown

Rayong