Drowning in plastic

Drowning in plastic

These people are actively addressing Thailand's terrible trash problem

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Early morning on a bank of the Chao Phraya River in Nakhon Sawan province, the shore is covered by three-dozen brightly coloured kayaks, support teams, city officials, volunteers from several civic organisations, and two-dozen eager kids the older kayakers help put on life vests.

They are gathered to call attention to a problem -- the presence of plastic and other trash in the water that is polluting Thailand's rivers.

After opening ceremonies, the kids board kayaks and set off to pick trash out of the water and the riverbanks. The purpose of the campaign, however, is less about picking up rubbish and more about creating an awareness of the problem and encouraging people to refrain from tossing trash in the first place.

Thailand ranks sixth among the world's nations in the amount of garbage it sends down the rivers and into the ocean. Most people now know about the gigantic garbage islands floating in the major seas; one island covers 1.5 million square kilometres (the size of Mongolia) in the Pacific Ocean alone.

Only now are people becoming aware of the threat that microplastics -- plastic that has been ground to powder and cannot be removed -- pose to health. It is being ingested by fish we eat and has been linked to cancer and congested organs.

After speeches, the young paddlers -- many in a boat for the first time -- head out to collect floating garbage as well as that decorating the riverbanks. It is brought to shore where the students and scouts learn how to sort it into vegetable matter, and recyclable and non-recyclable materials. They then learn about the problems that garbage can cause their community. Numerous posters explain the magnitude of the problem and how it can be rectified

The project is the brainchild of Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, professor of constitutional law as well as vice-rector for sustainability at Thammasat University. His awakening to the problem came three years ago.

"My father died and I returned to my boyhood home on Tha Lad River near Chachoengsao," he said. "When I was a boy, I had learned to swim in this river. It was clean and clear but when I returned home, I was shocked to see that it was full of hyacinth and rubbish. I couldn't accept that it wasn't beautiful or healthy anymore. I also felt that I needed to do something for my hometown.

"The challenge was to get other villagers to work with me, and for that I needed more information. I studied the situation and the potential solutions. I also bought a kayak and a GoPro and went out to gather evidence. Then, I invited the community leaders, schools, the mayor and showed them what I had found. Eventually they began to see it as a problem as well and in a relatively short time we cleaned up the river."

He then cast his eyes farther afield. "Why not the nearby Bangpakong, a major river in Isan? I approached my university about financing the creation of 30 sit-on-top kayaks that would form the Thammasat fleet. Students would have fun paddling the kayaks and would work with villagers and schoolchildren to clean up the river. Every two months we would choose a different river and go to work on it."

"To call public attention to the situation, I decided to create a big team to take on the Chao Phraya River. We would kayak for two weeks from Nakhon Sawan to the sea, spending our days educating people along the riverbanks about the need to keep their river clear of trash, especially plastic. It took eight months of planning but this is the result," he said, pointing to the numerous people carrying trash to a collection point.

The organisation is impressive. Logistics teams that have put together a huge flotilla of kayaks provided by local manufacturers. The governors of each province through which they travel have talked with the team and local residents about the importance of keeping the river clean.

Students and local residents are advised against single-use plastics. They learn the importance of using re-washable dishes and utensils and to use recyclable materials instead of Styrofoam -- another major source of rubbish -- a lesson that many restaurants need to learn. They are told that when rubbish is placed in plastic bags, it takes years for the outer bag to disintegrate before the materials it holds can begin to decompose. Finally, a local health official teaches the students how to measure water quality.

In the afternoon, the core teams of adult paddlers -- many of them university students -- set off on a 400km, 14-day journey that will end where the river enters the Gulf of Thailand. It is a gruelling schedule, paddling up to 38km per day in the hot sun, but enthusiasm is high. The teams spend each night in a monastery -- understandably, shortly after dinner everyone drops off to sleep, ready to rise at 5am the following morning. Little wonder the support team includes doctors, nurses and physical therapists.

All kayakers and support teams are volunteers from Thailand as well as other nations, including the US and Maldives. Funding comes from a dozen sponsors who have recognised the value of the campaign and are supporting it. So what's next?

"We want to use the media to keep the message going," said Prinya. "It will take a while but this is vital to the health of the planet, so we need to continue the public-education efforts we've initiated."

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