I travel to the other side of the world and I still see lots of plastic. I shouldn’t be surprised, I know, but when I look at fresh produce and it is covered in a clear film, I’m a bit turned off. In the grocery stores, most of the v
egetables and fruit are individually wrapped in plastic. It’s absolutely absurd. When we were at the Majesty’s Organic produce market in the mall (pictured below), it was all a little too strange to be buying produce not only in a mall but also wrapped in plastic. At first I thought it was an organic regulation but that’s obviously not the case. When I open the refrigerator half of what I see is plastic. At the market people prepare delicious dishes for people to eat there or take home- that is take in plastic bags. Meat, soup, rice, soy milk, sliced fruit- all fresh and all nicely packaged in plastic. (To the left is a man who sells at the night market soy milk, coconut milk, and other homemade drinks.)
egetables and fruit are individually wrapped in plastic. It’s absolutely absurd. When we were at the Majesty’s Organic produce market in the mall (pictured below), it was all a little too strange to be buying produce not only in a mall but also wrapped in plastic. At first I thought it was an organic regulation but that’s obviously not the case. When I open the refrigerator half of what I see is plastic. At the market people prepare delicious dishes for people to eat there or take home- that is take in plastic bags. Meat, soup, rice, soy milk, sliced fruit- all fresh and all nicely packaged in plastic. (To the left is a man who sells at the night market soy milk, coconut milk, and other homemade drinks.)It’s not just food either. People drink their coke in plastic bags (see Mom below). Though they do sell most cokes in reusable glass bottles, the sellers will then
pour the coke into a plastic bag for the costumer so that they can make the profit off the bottle. So much for not using PET bottles. Even books and fabric are plastic wrapped. And no signs of a plastic bag ban here.Oh yeah, and I have yet to see a recycling bin.
Maybe I’m just hypersensitive to plastic but I expected better standards for Thailand. Who is setting the standards anyhow? Though the States does not have a superb recycling program, we have at least been doing it for two decades or so. Does it really take that long for methods to travel? Intere
stingly, Bangladesh was the first country to completely ban plastic bags from supermarkets and Indonesia, India, and China have taken similar action. Why have these countries not influenced their Asian neighbors? Perhaps food safety and convenience is more important, but what about all that pollution?Well, at least the fruits are delicious (even if it is covered in plastic)!
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