The World Bank has handed over the award to four winning teams of a competition titled ‘Plastic Circularity Innovation Challenge’ launched to seek innovative solutions to combat plastic pollution in Bangladesh.
The global lender disclosed the matter in a press release on Wednesday.
Launched in November 2020, the contest asked for innovative solutions in two categories -- ‘collection/sorting, recycling of low-valued plastics and single-use plastics’ and ‘digital technology solutions in coping with plastic pollution such as mobile apps’.
The four winning teams are Team Amity, Team Blues, Team Garbageman and Team Green Beans.
Team Amity
The team was formed by Farhana Haque, majoring in Civil Engineering, and SadmanFakid, majoring in Chemical Engineering, from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Their solution to #BeatPlasticPollution is an integrated management of plastic wastes where they present a micro-credit business model addressing unemployment and involving a multimodal approach to plastic waste collection, sorting and recycling.
Team Blues
Team Blues was comprised of Mahedy Hasan, Sakib Asrar, and Tanvirul Azim, three Electrical and Electronics Engineering students from North South University.
Their solution to counter the problems was to build an extremely budget-friendly floating-aquatic-waste-cleaning robot made up of readily available cheap materials and with minimal labour.
This bot is made of floatable material that will hover on the water to collect waste materials, resulting in cleaning our water bodies.
Team Garbageman
Garbageman Ltd is an organisation founded by Fahim Uddin Shuvo. He presented a ‘Recycling Platform’, a free incentive-based digital way for environmentally conscious individuals, households, restaurants, and organisations who would donate recyclable waste for recycling and upcycling purposes.
The platform will formalise the supply chain of recyclables and create opportunities for green jobs, and conduct research and development to create scopes to recycle and upcycle waste.
Team Green Beans
It was comprised of Mohammad Rayed and Asma Arisham, students of Computer Science and Engineering at North South University, and Mahdi Ahmed, a student of Information and Communication Technology at Bangladesh University of Professionals.
The team came up with the model ‘Bottle Economy,’ a platform using USSD, a decade-old mobile communication protocol to connect poor people and scavengers with local recyclers, allowing them to sell plastic wastes directly while limiting the role of intermediaries. It encourages them to recycle plastics by providing monetary incentives.
The winning teams of the contest, funded by PROBLUE, received Tk 80,000 each.
Addressing the award-giving ceremony, Ziaul Hasan, secretary to the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change, said, “The Government of Bangladesh is committed to reduce pollution and ensure sustainable green growth. We are taking a range of actions to curb pollution and improve waste management.”
“It is encouraging to see that our youth are so well plugged into the issue and bringing pragmatic solutions to beat plastic pollution,” he added.
Mercy Tembon, World Bank country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan, said, “Addressing plastic pollution is a critical development agenda for ensuring green and smart growth. In Dhaka city alone, plastic waste has gone up from 178 tonnes per day in 2005 to 646 tonnes per day in 2020.”
Congratulating the winners, Tembon also said, “We all are very impressed with the creative and practical solutions proposed to beat plastic pollution. The World Bank looks forward to continuing working with the government, private sectors, and civil society groups of Bangladesh towards sustainable management of plastics.”
A three-member panel of judges comprising Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman and CEO of PRAN-RFL, CyrillGutsch, CEO of Parley for the Oceans, and Marina Tabassum, founder and principal architect of Marina Tabassum Architects, chose the winners after a virtual presentation.
Since 2019, the World Bank has collaborated with the Department of Environment and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to organise a series of events on ‘Sustainable Management of Plastic to Leverage Circular Economy and Achieve SDG in Bangladesh’ and Wednesday’s event was fourth in the series.
