Thai park posts discarded rubbish back to litterbugs
Thailand’s national park authorities have lost patience with litter louts trashing natural beauty spots and begun mailing their discarded rubbish back to their homes.
The novel approach to garbage disposal was reportedly launched after multiple visitors to the Khao Yai National Park near the capital, Bangkok, left behind heaps of unsightly packaging and bottles.
Varawut Silpa-archa, the environment minister, gave frustrated park officials the green light to parcel and post the trash to litterbugs, along with a curt message to improve their behaviour or face stiffer penalties in future.
The minister posted pictures of the garbage packed into boxes ready to be shipped out to home addresses, along with a reminder that littering can be punishable by up to five years in prison or a maximum fine of 500,000-baht [£12,400]
The parcels were accompanied by a message reading: “We collected your garbage in a cardboard box and sent it to your home. This should be a lesson to you, to never again throw away waste anywhere.”
Khao Yai National Park is the Southeast Asian nation’s oldest and third largest, covering more than 770 square miles of forest and grasslands that are home to diverse wildlife including bears, gibbons and elephants.
Especially popular with hikers, two of the park’s beautiful waterfalls were made famous in the movie The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The offending campers were tracked down because they had registered their addresses with the park authorities who then found the refuse near the site of their tents.
As well as receiving a smelly surprise in the post, they will now also be registered with the local police.
“It can be dangerous for animals like deer if they eat the rubbish, trying to digest plastic waste that people leave behind,” Narin Pinsakul, chief of the park, said, according to the DPA.
