Samui Mala is Green
Festivals are fun but guests often leave a pile of trash behind them. For the past two years, Samui Mala has had little or no plastic or paper garbage to clean up after the festival. This is because we have gone out of our way to use alternate and traditional solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the festival and to explore and demonstrate creative solutions instead of lazy, expensive and unsustainable practices.
We ask every venue to do the best you can to begin to make these changes:
- For water, please do not distribute individual small plastic bottles. Use a large container or water cooler and coconut bowls or glass.
- Do not use polystyrene or plastic for food wrappers – we have banana leaves all over the island! Rent plates or glasses from your local temple if you prefer.
- Do not use plastic straws if possible.
- Think about a deposit and refund on re-usable glasses or cups.
- Demonstrate good practice for the separation of rubbish into compostables, recyclables and landfill and ensure that everyone can understand how to put the right thing in the right bin.
- Create compost bins or contact the Thai Hotel Association member closest to you to collect this for their effective microorganism production if you don’t have the facilities to make compost.
- Dig a hole. Add organic waste, cover with dirt. Repeat until hole is full. Plant a fruit tree on that spot. Dig another hole and repeat the process. This turns your "food waste" into "food yield" which you can then consume for free. It is actually easier than filling the black plastic bag with that heavy organic food waste which smells so bad and then shlepping it out to the road.
And most importantly!
- Feel Good ALL day.
- Treat ALL sentient beings with dignity and respect ALL day
- Be kind to each other ALL day