If you've ever walked by any abandoned lots in most any big city in the world, you know that plastic has a habit of piling up and causing all kinds of ugly problems. Well, it's no different in Thailand and the biggest and most visible kid on the block in terms of where all this plastic comes from is the ubiquitous 7-11. Indeed, it's one of the long-running jokes here that whenever you go into one to buy a few little things, you come out with two bags, four straws of varying sizes, a handful of little plastic spoons, a bunch of stickers and a receipt, all for something that you bought with pocket change. I thought, as a retailing behemoth, surely they're aware of just how much they're contributing - and more importantly for a big company, how much they could save - if they weren't handing out so much damn plastic. To find out, I called and called and called, and finally got through to their Corporate Communications Division.