This Thai National Park Is Fighting Littering By Sending The Trash Back To Tourists That Left It There

Even though thousands of people, for some reason, still can’t wrap their heads around it, littering has a huge negative impact on our environment. For instance, all kinds of toxic materials and chemicals found in the trash can be blown or washed into rivers, forests, lakes, and oceans, and can eventually pollute waterways or soil. Moreover, litter reduces air quality, can encourage the spread of diseases, and can kill animals. The list goes on.

People and authorities all over the world are looking for ways to encourage people to behave responsibly and not to litter. For instance, common practices include littering penalties, community clean-up events, anti-littering campaigns, and so on. Though recently, Khao Yai National Park came up with an idea to discourage people from littering that is quite unique, to say the least. They decided to send all the trash to visitors who left it there.

Fed up with guests leaving trash, Khao Yai National Park came up with an innovative idea to teach them a lesson

Image credits: TOPVarawut

Varawut Silpa-archa, Thailand’s minister of natural resources and environment, shared some photos of boxes full of trash collected at the National Park and announced that all the trash would be collected, packed, and sent to guests who left it there. “The garbage that tourists left in the park is now packed into boxes. It’s ready to be returned to the owners of the garbage,” he writes in the post.

“You have forgotten some of your belongings at the Khao Yai National Park. Please let us return these to you,” reads the note

Image credits: TOPVarawut

In order to inform the tourists where the trash came from, they added a note saying this: “You have forgotten some of your belongings at the Khao Yai National Park. Please let us return these to you.”

Turns out, when guests come to the park, they sign in with their contact information, including their home address

Image credits: TOPVarawut

You’re probably wondering—how does the National Park know where to send this trash? Well, the answer is simple. When guests come to the park, they sign in with their contact information, including their home address.