Yangon tries (and fails) to control betel nut spitting with little red bags

Photo of a betel nut seller in downtown Yangon / Aung Naing Soe / Coconuts Yangon

We can all agree that having less betel nut spit on the streets, sidewalks and apartment staircases of Yangon is an admirable goal for city authorities.

And the latest attempt – small red plastic bags that can be used for depositing the ground up betel – is an admirable idea.

Too bad it’s just not working.

“Betel quid shops are afraid of selling the spit bags,” U Aung Myint Maw, an assistant director of Yangon City Development Committee’s Department of Pollution Control and Cleansing, told the Myanmar Times. ‘Quid’ is another term for betel nut.

“We didn’t force them to do so, but we have to raise public awareness among both sellers and chewers to try to stop them spitting in the street,” he added. “Some chewers spit into the bag, then just throw it away.”

First distributed in July, the recycleable, waterproof spit baggies are 10 centimeters by 15 centimetres and cost only 12 kyats ($0.01), the Times reported.

Spitting betel nut onto the streets is technically illegal and carries a prison term of up to one year, according to the Times. But if that’s true, the law is one of the least effective in Southeast Asia, let alone the world.

The red stains are everywhere, so common they are have become almost like white (or red?) noise.

YCDC officials seem at a loss to control the problem, and we can’t blame them. There are simply too many people chewing betel nut and too few resources to take any kind of action.

But kudos to YCDC for trying, and thinking of some creative, if not so effective, ideas. It’s almost enought to make you feel bad for them.

“Our department wants people to spit betel in a more considerate manner,” U Aung Myint Maw said. “The bags can be recycled at least 10 times. But though we’ve distributed more than 100,000 of them, our cleansing staff have not recovered a single one.”

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