Staff Reporter :
Environmentalists on Saturday demanded exemplary punishment to those of the people who are still producing and using polythene defying ban.
The environmentalists called for stoppage of importing raw materials of polythene and tissue bags importing at a seminar marking the Earth Day which will be observed today (Sunday). Save the Environment Movement organized the programme at its Kalabagan office in Dhaka.
Abdus Sobhan, General Secretary of the organisation, said, although production of polythene is banned by law, its production has been increasing day by day.
He said that a single family uses four polythene bags everyday and around two crore polythene bags are being used in Dhaka per day, Sobhan said.
“We were praised worldwide when we banned production and use of polythene, but we could not retain it,” he said.
In his keynote paper, Prof Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, Chairman of Environment Science Department of Stamford University Bangladesh, cited information that 3.5 kg plastic items were used by a person in the country in 2014.
Although use of polythene in Bangladesh is lesser than in our neighbouring countries, it is more harmful for our country mainly because of poor waste management.
