This is one of the most beautiful places in the entire world. This island, with its powerful jungle landscapes, cascading waterfalls and stunning beaches can take your breath away with its startling beauty.
I’m honoured to live here, I try to appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds me here, and I try to respect it. It is terrifying to see the impact that living has on the environment here. In the west it is easier to ‘not see’ as your trash gets carted away, debris put in skips, waste removed.
Photo credit: Anja (thanks!)
Here everything gets dumped: in the river, the ocean, on the street, everywhere. Some rubbish is removed but you have to pay, so most of the time it’s easier to chuck it in the river. You literally see the impact of peoples’ trash around you at all times.
I’ve been wanting to make a few changes to reduce our impact on the environment, and then I found the brilliant one small change challenge over at hip mountain mama. Basically you make one small change at the start of each month leading up to earth day on April 22.
The changes I’m committing to this month are:
- Switching to canvas shopping bags
- Moving the washing machine pipe to water the garden
- Switching to all natural laundry detergent.
I’m working on implementing a guttering system and a couple other things, but will do my best to do these this month.
Will let you know how it goes……
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Thanks for joining the challenge! It is so exciting to have people participating all over the world. I think your first few changes are wonderful! Good luck
Suzy
Waste is a big problem, if you burn it then people bleat and if you dump it, ditto. I guess the answer is down to the Thai government to put their hand into their pocket and implement a regimented refuse collection system. I know in Wilai’s village the bin men visit twice a week and her village is relatively clean, I certainly haven’t seen the likes of what is showing in your photo. The cost in Wi’s Isaan village is a mere ten baht a month. Even by Thai standards that’s cheap enough to make the cleaner streets worthwhile.
Martyn´s last blog ..A Handbag Wielding Blogger
It’s an ongoing problem martyn, one I don’t know how to address. I’m looking into those green incinerators, but not really sure how green they are. Being an island all the rubbish that is collected just gets dumped in a big pile, or buried, yuk….what to do…..
What a great idea. I can do the first and last, but I doubt my neighbours below would be impressed at my attempt to recycle water.
Catherine Wentworth´s last blog ..2010 Bangkok International Tattoo Convention