When everything comes in polybags
In 2002, the government banned thin polythene and plastic bags, making Bangladesh the first country in the world to slap such a restriction.
The law states that, "Manufacturing, importing, marketing, selling, displaying for sale, storing, transporting, polythene shopping bags or any other material, which is harmful to the environment, is prohibited."
Although hailed as a major step towards reducing environmental pollution, the ban, however, was largely unsuccessful due to poor enforcement by the authorities concerned.
Almost 22 years later, the extent to which polythene and plastic materials are being used in marketplaces, one would hardly believe that the material was banned in the country. Polythene is everywhere.
Visiting the 161 small and large markets in nine upazilas of Bagerhat, including Badhal Bazar, Kachua Bazar, Signboard Bazar, Daibaggahati Bazar, Bagerhat Bazar and Khanjahan Ali Mazar Bazar, this correspondent saw all shopkeepers are using polythene bags to sell goods including fruits and vegetables, fish, meat, bakery, groceries, medicine, etc. to the consumers.
Once discarded, these bags eventually accelerate environmental pollution in a myriad of ways.
Packets of candy, biscuits and chips, mini packs of different brands of shampoo, single-use poly-bags, and packets of different juices were seen floating in canals, waterbodies and rivers in Gopalpur, Tangakhali, Sangdia villages under Kachua upazila.
A similar scenario prevails in all nine upazilas of Bagerhat.
"These polythene bags and packets are chocking the waterbodies, and harming the fertility of soil," said Gouranga Kumar Some, a teacher of Kachua Degree College.
''Poly-bags are everywhere. It's beyond control in our country. I purchased several items including fish, potato, sugar, and puffed rice. Every item came in a poly-bag," said Abu Bakar Siddique, who was shopping at Badhal Bazar.
''Vendors say net bags or other environment-friendly bags are costly, so they give poly-bags and we have to use these,'' he added.
A shopkeeper at Badhal Bazar said, 'There are more than 400 shops in this market and every shop uses around 1kg of poly-bags of different sizes daily.'
Mahfuzur Rahman Mukul, Khulna divisional coordinator of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, said, "We are very much concerned about it. BELA filed a case in 2019 regarding single use polythene. It was said during the time that the use of polythene will be controlled gradually within 2023, but the reality is otherwise.''
"The Department of Environment said they do not have sufficient manpower to control it. We have sent letters to every government department regarding the issue," he added.
Md Kamruzzaman Sarkar, deputy director of DoE in Bagerhat, said, "We seized 1,304 kg of polythene in January this year during mobile court drives. We are trying to raise public awareness against use of polythene."
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