Plastic pollution continues unchecked in Bangladesh

Kashem, a vegetable vendor at the Nandipara bazar kitchen market in the capital, always makes sure to have poly bags in his stall. Most of his customers do not bring any carry bags with them.

He represents almost all traders in all the kitchen markets in the country when it comes to using disposable poly bags. Despite being illegal in the country, the poly bags have successfully infiltrated all sorts of shops in the country, from supermarkets to street shops.

Amid such a situation, Global Alliance for Incineration Alternative (GAIA) observed January 6 as a single-use plastic free day in Bangladesh.

Besides, the alliance, for the first time, is observing January as “Zero Waste Month” internationally through its 800-member civil society organisations (CSOs), NGOs and individuals worldwide.

The Business Post, one of the leading English daily newspapers of Bangladesh is a media partner of GAIA to mark the zero-waste month.

Environmental activists have warned time and time again that unabated plastic pollution poses serious threats to human and animal health due to a lack of effective action to reduce plastic production and safe management in the country.

They also said the hazardous effects of plastic, particularly single-use plastics, were violations of citizens’ constitutional rights to life, health and environment.

Besides, health experts said plastic can exist in soil and water for a long time as it is not biodegradable and it may turn into leachate. In addition, the material can get mixed with the food chain and enter the human body causing diseases and deaths.

Plastic, when burned, releases dangerous chemicals such as hydrochloric acid, sulphur dioxide, dioxins, furans and heavy metals as well as particulates. Emission of such elements is known to cause respiratory ailments and stress the human immune system.

Despite all these warnings from the experts, plastic use in Bangladesh has only increased. 

Plastic use in Bangladesh

In the current situation in Bangladesh, it is hard to believe that the country was the first in the globe to ban the use of polythene bags decades ago.

Plastic products, especially polythene shopping bags, were introduced in the early 1980s. The bags were light, cheap, and could be easily disposed of– all of which made them hugely popular.

But the repercussions of such abundant use of these bags came to the spotlight in 1998, after a deadly flood ravaged the country. As water began to recede, authorities found the sewerage lines clogged with heaps of polythene bags leading to massive water-logging.

A few years later, in 2002, the government banned thin polythene and plastic bags, making Bangladesh the first country in the world to slap such a restriction.

Article 6a of the Environment Protection Act 2002 states that production, marketing or use of any kind of single-use plastic bags and polythene that is harmful to the environment is a punishable act. But the law has had little impact in preventing harmful plastic use.

The ban, hailed as a major step towards reducing environmental pollution, worked for a few years. But then the effect of the restrictions started to wane thanks to a lax enforcement of the law and lack of environment-friendly alternatives.

Twenty years down the line, these polythene and plastic bags have become an integral part of daily lives as they are used indiscriminately for household and industrial purposes.

Amid rampant spread of single-use plastic, the High Court (HC) on January 6, 2020, directed the authorities concerned to ban single-use plastic products in coastal areas, hotels, motels and restaurants across the country in one year as they are health and environmental hazards. The HC gave the order following a writ petition jointly filed by 11 rights organisations seeking necessary steps against single-use plastics.

The throwaway plastic products include drinking straws, cotton buds, cigarette butts, food packaging, food containers, bottles, plates, plastic cutlery and plastic bags.

The court also ordered the government to strictly enforce the ban on polythene or throwaway plastic bags across the country through regular market monitoring and closure of polythene manufacturing factories.

So far, there has been no significant progress to that end. 

“There was a time when we took reusable bags to grocery shops but now, poly bags are available at the vegetable market as well as super shops,” said Sharif Jamil, general secretary of the Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA).

He added that many countries have adopted the ‘polluters pay policy’ where bags are offered to shoppers only if they need them, and that too in exchange for a certain amount of toll.

That is how, by including the people, regulations can be implemented, he said.

Consumption tripled in urban areas

According to a World Bank study, Bangladesh’s annual per capita plastic consumption in urban areas tripled in 15 years to nine kg in 2020.

The situation is the worst in Dhaka city, where its usage is significantly higher than the national average. According to the World Bank statistics, in 2020, the per capita plastic consumption in Dhaka stood at 22 kg, up from 9.2 kg in 2005.

The megacity generates about 646 tonnes of plastic waste daily in Dhaka, which accounts for 10 per cent of all wastes generated in Bangladesh. However, only 37.2 per cent of the plastic waste in Dhaka was recycled, said the World Bank study.

Poly bag production and use boomed during the Covid-19 period. According to a study by an environmental research group called Environment and Social Development Organisation (ESDO), more than 78 thousand tonnes of poly bag waste was generated in one year of pandemic in Bangladesh and illegal production of poly bags went up to half a million a day.

Globally, in 1980, plastic production was less than 100 million tonnes which increased to 400 million tonnes in 2019. The figure is expected to double by 2040.

A 2018 report published by Earth Day Network ranked Bangladesh 10th out of the top 20 plastic polluting countries in the world.

According to the Department of Environment (DoE), Bangladesh generates around 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day.

A joint study carried out a few years ago by the DoE and Waste Concern found that 36 per cent of plastic waste was formally recycled while 39 per cent was dumped in landfills and the remaining 25 per cent leaked into the environment, eventually flowing to the Bay of Bengal through the rivers.

In the 2020 writ petition filed with the HC, rights organisation said in 2018 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had reported the dumping of 73,000 tonnes of plastic waste into the Bay of Bengal through the Padma, Jamuna and Meghna Rivers.

According to a 2015 study by the Waste Concern, a total of 821,250 tonnes of plastic waste were generated annually in urban hubs of Bangladesh, while some 207,685 tonnes were dumped in marine environments every year.

According to the study, 95 per cent of the solid plastic waste generated in Dhaka comprise poly-packed throwaways, including plastic bottles, polythene bags and sachets of fast food and non-food consumer goods such as toiletries, food items and toothpastes.

The majority of the plastic is produced by the packaging industry and consumer products. Recently, Break Free From Plastic (BFFP), a borderless global organisation published its Global Brand Audit Report, where Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, and Nestlé came in as the world’s top plastic polluters for five years running.

In Bangladesh, the pollution is dominated mainly by The CocaCola Company, Pran-RFL Group, PepsiCo, Partex Group, Akij Food and Beverage Limited and Unilever.

Global treaty to reduce plastic pollution

On March 2, 2022, heads of state, ministers of environment and other representatives from 175 nations endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi to end plastic pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024.

The agreement in turn, is expected to present a legally binding instrument, which would reflect diverse alternatives to address the full lifecycle of plastics, the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials, and the need for enhanced international collaboration to facilitate access to technology, to allow the plan to be realised.

The Global Plastics Treaty, formed last year, states that it must stop excessive plastic production, must keep oil and gas in the ground, and must mainstream refill and reuse systems.

Heading towards a cleaner world

Many countries have banned single-use plastics in the preceding two decades to combat the persistent and pervasive nature of the harm caused by plastic bags. Bangladesh too 

The Jute Packaging Act 2010 promoted an alternative to plastic packaging for six essential items- paddy, rice, wheat, maize, fertiliser, sugar.

Green activists Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said individual effort is needed to reduce single-use plastic in the country.

She said, “As an individual, if you want, you can become plastic free from today - instead of plastic bags use jute or fabric bags. Instead of single-use plastic plates, cups and glasses, you can easily use glass or brass plates and cutlery.”

“We have alternate options for every single-use plastic material we use in our everyday lives,” she added.