Rethinking anti-polythene drive

A director of the Department of Environment (DoE) was reportedly seriously injured in an attack allegedly by the workers from an illegal polythene factory in the Chowkbazar area of Old Dhaka on Sunday (January 26). The said DoE official along with others was returning after carrying out a raid, reportedly, led by a deputy secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on the polythene factory in question. The first question that comes to mind is what the police force accompanying the MoEFCC's enforcement team was doing when the violence took place so that the attackers could get away with looting, as reported, a truck laden with confiscated materials from the polythene factory that was sealed by law enforcers? Obviously, the attack was reprehensible and against the law since the DoE officials were carrying out a government order as part of the nationwide campaign against production, marketing and use of polythene that started on November 3 last year. Notably, the ban on the use, production, marketing and transportation of polythene bags was first imposed in 2002 in exercise of the Environmental Conservation Act, 1995. And there are provisions of stringent penal measures including prison term and fine for production and marketing of polythene. Sadly, the ban soon lost its efficacy and within just four years, the use of polythene again started in 2006. It hardly needs explaining that just enunciation of a law is not enough for its implementation however harsh it may be in its wording. Two issues have dogged the law against polythene from the outset. And those have to do with the economy of polythene and the lack of alternative products to replace polythene such as in the form of bags and various packaging materials. The economy of polythene is huge as according to the Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers Association, there are 6,000 industrial units in this sector that employ some 500,000 workers. For encouraging the use of jute bags and other jute products as an alternative to polythene, a law was enacted in 2010. But the production of bags and other packaging materials with jute was neither adequate to meet the demand, nor was it cost-effective.

The cabinet division, for instance, on September 5 last year, instructed all government offices to stop the use of single-use plastics and introduce environment-friendly alternatives instead. Later, from October 1 last year, the government banned the use of polythene and polypropylene shopping bags in all superstores. The government order did indeed stimulate production of eco-friendly bags from jute and other biodegradable materials by some small-scale business units. But they could not produce enough bags to meet the demand of the superstores. Worse yet, those business units are facing shortage of fabrics to make bags and at the same time, the prices of jute and cotton fabrics have shot up suddenly. As a result, the production costs of these biodegradable cotton bags increased rendering them less cost-effective. In that case, what alternatives are there before the major consumers of bags and packaging materials to replace plastics such as polythene? The manufacturers of the banned polythene bags, on their part, also use a similar logic to justify themselves saying that since there is demand for single-use poly bags, they are meeting the market demand knowing full well that they are violating law.

So, one should not be surprised by the fact that a large number of unlicensed small-scale factories are producing polythene and other plastic items in the Chowkbazar, Debidas lane of Old Dhaka, Churihatta, Lalbagh and Kamrangir Char areas of the city. Even the DoE knows it, said a report.

Do not these facts militate against the success of the anti-polythene drive that began more than two decades ago?

In that case, should one be surprised by Sunday's attack on an enforcement team of DoE?

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