Rubbish has come back to haunt us again.
Recently, we have learned of officials cracking down on the recycling of electronic waste. I'm talking huge piles of electronic parts and whatnot lying on open ground -- for years -- but yet somehow managing to elude the regulators' eye.
And this stuff came to us a long way away from places like Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and probably many other countries as well.
Without our knowledge, Thailand may have already become a world hub for electronic rubbish. Who knows, that might be a goal in the official plan for Thailand 4.0.
But it's disgusting, really. Haven't we ourselves been producing massive amounts of rubbish already? We really don't need this type of foreign import, do we?
News reports tell us that Chinese investors were behind these operations. But let's not be too quick on the draw and start blasting the Chinese scoundrels.
The fact is the Chinese could not have done it alone. They needed help from us Thais -- citizens and officials alike.
These so-called waste-recycling companies started out as majority-Thais-owned entities but in reality management decision-making belongs to the Chinese investors.
The Industrial Works Department granted licences to these companies but failed miserably to ensure compliance with environmental rules. Something must have gotten in the way of them performing their duties.
At the entry points, imported shipments were declared as items for recycling but they actually contained more waste products.
They had passed through customs without questions being asked. No prize for guessing correctly why.
Since the story broke, more similar places have been discovered in various parts of the country.
Even before this latest development, there had been widespread illegal dumping of domestic hazardous and industrial waste.
Recent statistics from 2013 to 2016 show that Thailand generated on average 380,605 tonnes of electronic waste per year, making up 64.8% of all household hazardous waste.
For 2016 alone, electronic waste amounted to 393,070 tonnes, or 65% out of 606,319 tonnes of household hazardous waste. But only 7.1% of these were properly treated. We can safely guess that the rest of them had gone to illegal landfills to contaminate our soil and water supplies.
With other industrial and household waste in a similarly dire situation, it is not an overstatement to say that the rubbish situation has reached crisis proportions.
How bad is it? The oceans that we used to think of as being too vast for us to do harm to are now exhibiting symptoms of severe sickness.
Just last week, an ailing pilot whale was found beached in Songkhla. Veterinarians and volunteers tried in vain to save the poor creature.
Before it succumbed, it vomited what turned out to be numerous undigested plastic bags. After a necropsy, more than 80 bags were found in its stomach, obviously the cause of its sickness and death.
It's not the only marine animal to die such a miserable death in Thai waters. Sea turtles and dolphins have met a similar fate in the past.
I have covered waste issues since I was a young reporter. The distressing thing is that there has been little progress over all these years.
Now there is talk again of measures to reduce plastic use, something that should have been in place many years ago.
These measures, if they ever come to fruition, will already be too little too late.
I have since come to the conclusion that voluntary measures do not work. Thai people need strong medicine. Nothing short of an outright ban on plastic bags and consumer foam containers will get us anywhere.
Thais are not known as a disciplined people with a good public conscience, unfortunately. Public good seems to be an alien concept.
We are not entirely to blame because we are the product of our history and culture. Patriarchy and patronage systems have long taught us to wait for orders and assistance.
We look to our leaders, our phu yai, for direction. If we have good leaders, we could become a happy society despite adversities.
Unfortunately, good leaders are in short supply. Those we have had have also been indoctrinated to uphold the archaic values so it is impossible for them to see beyond the unseen cultural boundaries.
We want what more advanced countries have, be they goods, entertainment, technology or what have you. However, we seem incapable of adopting in an appropriate manner the new values hidden in those imports.
The government is planning to turn the country into Thailand 4.0. The term has a modern and smart sound to it. But what is it, really?
Is it all about industrialisation with an eye toward increasing our almighty GDP?
What will happen to our natural resources and way of life? Have any thoughts been given to preparing the citizens to adapt to a new way of living, a new reality, a new culture?
Are our leaders capable of thinking beyond financial returns and interests for themselves, like the public good, for instance?
Wasant Techawongtham is a former news editor, Bangkok Post.
