BANGKOK (BLOOMBERG) - Two things Thailand is famous for are its delicious street food and its wonderful beaches. Sadly, the first typically comes in plastic bags that often wash up on the second - not good for a country that relies on tourism for a fifth of its revenue.

Thailand's love of plastic bags helped make it the sixth-worst maritime polluter. The country generates more than 5,000 metric tons of plastic trash a day, three-quarters of which ends up in landfills. So the Thai government decided to clamp down, promising to eliminate all single-use plastic bags by 2021, ban plastic straws by 2022 and recycle all its remaining plastic packaging by 2027.