‘You forgot these’: Thai national park starts posting litter back to visitors who drop it

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

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.