The uphill battle to remove, recycle laminated posters

There is a major concern over the disposal of tonnes of laminated campaign posters without causing further damage to the environment and public health.

The city corporations yesterday started taking down the posters, most of which contain a non-degradable laminating film. Officials at Dhaka north and south city corporations said it would take them well over a week to remove the posters that are quite an eyesore.

The DSCC plans to dump these in Matuail landfill while the DNCC is looking for organisations interested in recycling them, officials said.

Posters for the recent city polls kept on one side of the road by city corporation workers in Kakrail yesterday. Photo: Rashed Shumon

But experts said it would not be possible to fully recycle the laminated posters.

Meanwhile, the roads are being littered with some of the tattered posters and some posters have ended up in open drains.

In the weeks preceding Saturday’s elections to Dhaka north and south city corporations, millions of laminated and polythene-covered posters blocked whatever is left of the city skyline.

As environmentalists raised concerns over disposal, the High Court on January 22 ordered the production and display of laminated posters to stop. But the posters became more ubiquitous by the hour.

The Environment and Social Development Organisation (ESDO) last month said around 2,472 tonnes of plastic waste would be generated from the campaigns.

“We’ve started taking down the posters the morning after the election… But I think it will probably take 8-10 days,” Air Commodore Zahid Hossain, chief waste management officer at the DSCC, told The Daily Star.

He noted that many of the posters were paper-only and that it would be a blessing if rag pickers collected those posters and sold those to people who make single-use paper bags, he added.

DNCC spokesperson ASM Mamun said they had cleared six areas of posters yesterday.

“Our 2,850 cleaning staff are working and we hope that we will be able to take down all the posters soon,” he told this newspaper.

The DNCC is piling up the posters at the secondary transfer station at every ward.

“We are not dumping or burning these considering the environmental impacts. We are looking for organisations interested in recycling,” Mamun said.

ESDO Secretary General Shahriar Hossain said the plastic films on the posters would not decompose if dumped in a landfill or somewhere else.

“These are not recyclable. The hard PVC or polyvinyl chloride used in making something like an identity card can be partially recycled. But the double-layer plastic [in the posters] is not recyclable at all,” he said.

The posters should be kept from being exposed to the environment, he added.

Workers busy removing posters from the street. The Election Commission directed all city polls’ contestants to remove all campaign posters and other materials within the next 24 hours. Photo: Rashed Shumon

Contacted, AKM Rafique Ahammad, director general of the Department of Environment, said he didn’t know that the laminated posters were not recyclable.

He added that his department had written to the Election Commission about the matter.

“We also informed the local government department and copies of the letter has been sent to the city corporations so that they dispose of these in an environment-friendly manner.

“We requested the Election Commission to include the issue in future code of conducts. Rather, we recommended using information technology and digital displays for campaigning,” he said.