Officials In Thailand Mail Actual Trash Back to Litterbugs
In case the destruction of our global ecosystems isn't enough to deter you from leaving your trash everywhere, Thai officials have a new plan to stop litterbugs right in their grimy tracks -- hunting them down and mailing their garbage back to them.
In what is probably the world's most perfectly passive-aggressive approach to environmental activism, authorities from the Khao Yai National Park, which is about two hours northeast of the country's capital of Bangkok, said they would start sending trash left in the park back whoever left it there. The ingenious move came after a group of visitors left behind a tent full of garbage following a camping trip, posing a hazard to the local wildlife, according to The New York Times.
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"You have forgotten some of your belongings at the Khao Yai National Park," read a note included in the package of trash mailed back to the unidentified (but hopefully ashamed) visitors. "Please let us return these to you." Yet the note, which could give almost anyone's passive-aggressive college roommates a run for their money, is just the beginning. Aside from receiving a souvenir in the mail, the visitors have also been blacklisted from attending the park for overnight visits and were reported to the police, where they could face up to five years in jail or the equivalent of about a $16,000 fine, the Washington Post reported.
So how, exactly, did authorities find the perpetrators? A bit of good old-fashioned social media stalking. After a complaint about the campers was posted on a public Facebook forum earlier this month, Thai officials jumped to action, referencing rental forms and double-checking that information with the name on a prescription bottle left in the tent.
"Let's help modify behaviors to make New Normal," Thailand's environment minister, Varawut Silpa-archa, wrote of the incident on Facebook. "Travel with conscience. Let's maintain cleanliness and save the environment. Because from now on, we will take strict legal action." Moral of the story? Don't litter. Ever. Especially not in any of Thailand's national parks. (But seriously, you really shouldn't litter anyways.)
For more trash-talk, you can find Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
