Thailand has kicked off the new year with restrictions on single-use plastic bags at major mall operators and the ubiquitous 7-Eleven convenience stores. 

The initiative, which came into effect this January 2020, intends to encourage local Thais to be responsible users of plastic and to diminish the detrimental effects of ocean pollution. Thailand hopes to cease the use of it completely by 2022.

While customers can pay a small fee for reusables, cost-effective shoppers are getting inventive and grabbing anything possible to stow their groceries pledging their commitment to the worthy cause. 

From laundry baskets to actual luggages, we look at the quirky ways Thai shoppers came up with to tackle the nationwide plastic ban!

No plastic? No problem!

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

If there is a ‘wheel’, there is a way.

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

A suitcase to lug all the goods.

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

That auntie-looking bag you can buy from your neighbourhood pasar malam sure comes in handy.

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

Can’t find something practical as a plastic carrier alternative? Just make use of whatever you are wearing!

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

A laundry basket seems just about right too.

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

… Or a black trash bag.

Image credit: ROV ไหมละ

This shopper sure did cook up a brilliant idea.

A timely initiative

Thailand was ranked sixth in the world for waste disposal into the sea, as cited by its Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Varawut Silpa-Archa. Awareness of the issue was heightened as images of dead turtles, whales and dugongs with pieces of plastic bags congesting their stomachs made the rounds some time last year.

If there is something we can learn from the Thais through their otherwise unconventional shopping methods is that hey, going plastic-free may not be so hard after all. Take notes, folks!

Also read: Starting 2020, Thailand will stop giving out plastic bags at major stores