Waste is a Luxury of the Affluent

Posted by Laurence O'Sullivan Aug 13, 2008

While I was researching the two articles on recycling, Materials Best Suited to Recycling and Recycling Programs can Encourage Waste Reduction, it put me in mind of the recycling programs available here where I live, in Pattaya, Thailand. There are none for the simple reason they are not needed.

Garbage collection cost 40 baht a month (just over US$1) and the garbage trucks come around about three nights a week to collect them. Garbage bins are kept outside the gate and trash is not separated. But during every day, two to three different people will come around all roads in Pattaya, with a little handcart, and go thru the garbage, removing plastic, bottles and paper. They do this without making a mess, and everyone accepts them as a fact of life. They then sell on whatever is saleable to various other people and companies to earn money. The city garbage collectors themselves are allowed to sift thru the trash as well and remove anything they think they can sell.

This concept does not only apply to kitchen trash either. Any broken or damaged item of furniture or electronic equipment that I do not need, I leave outside my gate and within twenty minutes its gone, either to be used again or resold.

This reminded me of my childhood in Ireland in the “hungry fifties”, before it became the “Celtic Tiger”. At that time Environmentalism and recycling as concepts were unheard of, yet we recycled every glass soda, milk and beer bottle we could find. We did it because shopkeepers paid us 2 cents per bottle.

This shows that waste is a luxury of the affluent and recycling works best when there is a monetary gain involved.