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The government has kept its drive against polythene on hold for more than four months as warehouses used to stock seized polythene by the Department of Environment (DoE) has been filled to the brim.
The DoE, which has been tasked to stop the use of the banned item in the country, has run out of storage space after stockpiling 150 tons of polythene shopping bag in its warehouses.
The situation turned worse after the DoE failed to clear its stockpile soon after the pandemic began.
Before the pandemic, a large portion of polythene bags recovered by the DoE were sent to Sharirik Pratibandhi Surakkha Trust (SPST), a government body for physically-challenged persons under the Ministry of Social Welfare, which used to manufacture different types of plastic products at its factory named “Moitri Shilpa.”
However, SPST’s plastic manufacturing came to a standstill after the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, causing a backlog of polythene stock at the DoE warehouses.
“As DoE warehouses are now overstocked, we cannot continue our drives against polythene as we have no place to store them after recovery,” a DoE official, requesting anonymity, told The Business Post. “Warehouses of divisional headquarters are also in the same situation while district offices do not have storage facilities,” he added.
Acknowledging the problem, DoE Director General Ashraf Haque told The Business Post, “Earlier, we used to supply the seized polythene bag to the SPST and clear space at our warehouse. However, supply to the Moitri Shilpa ceased after the pandemic began. We are now trying to explore ways to find alternative uses for dispersing the seized items.”
He also said that the DoE plans to supply the polythene bags to a project of Khulna City Corporation which will use it to produce diesel.
“We hope we will be able to resume our drives from August 11 after the lockdown is relaxed. Meanwhile, our department has been working to curb sound pollution and smog emissions in the country,” he added.
However, the polythene-to-diesel project of KCC just received its design approval from DoE and is expected to take much time to start operation.
Mohsin Ali, factory manager of Moitri Shilpo Factory of SPST, said, “We used polythene to make mugs, jars, barrels, among many other products. Due to Covid-19 and lockdown, we have stopped producing. Currently, there is no demand for polythene in our factory.”
According to experts, polythene shopping bags have less recycling value and therefore remain mostly ignored by recyclers. At the same time, institutionalising the production of diesel from polythene will also patronize polythene production in the country.
“If a polythene-to-diesel plant gets approval and comes into operation, then how will the government stop polythene production when it is the main raw material for the plant? In that case, the government has to patronize polythene production, instead of stopping it, to keep raw material supply available,” Siddika Sultana, executive director of Environment and Social Development Organization-ESDO.
“The idea to produce diesel from polythene does not sound right and it will not be ring in the long run. We cannot support the idea of diesel production from polythene. The government should reject such suicidal ideas and work to stop the production of polythene production immediately,” she added.
“As polythene cannot be disposed in a landfilled as it will pollute soil and ecosystem through leaching. Burning it would emit greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Therefore, stopping the production of polythene is only solution,” she furthered.
