‘You forgot these’: Thai national park starts posting litter back to visitors who drop it
Authorities try to top huge quanitites of cans, bottles and food packaging dumped at 800 sq mile site
![Litter collected from Khao Yai National Park in Thailand](https://static.independent.co.uk/2020/09/18/10/KoPark.jpg)
Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
![Louise Thomas](https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/louise-thomas.png)
Louise Thomas
Editor
Litterbugs who drop rubbish in a national park in Thailand have been warned their rubbish will be posted back to them at home.
Tourists at the popular Khao Yai National Park – which is full of wildlife – have been blamed for leaving bottles, cans and food packaging strewn across the 800 sq mile site.
But now all visitors will be ordered to register their home address before entering.
If they are found to have dropped litter, they will have it mailed back to them, the country’s environment minister has announced.
Varawut Silpa-archa posted pictures to Facebook showing waste collected from the park packaged up and ready to be mailed out along with a note: “You forgot these things.”
“Your trash – we’ll send it back to you,” wrote the minister in the post before emphasising that littering in a national park is an offence in Thailand punishable by up to five years in prison.
The government is acting, he added, as litter has becomes increasingly common at the site.
During one of its busiest ever weeks, over the new-year holiday in 2016, some 154,000 visitors left more than 23 tonnes of waste behind, the Bangkok Post reports.
The litter is dangerous to the park’s famous wildlife, which also includes elephants, bears, snakes, jackals and deer, authorities say.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments