THOUGH polythene shopping bags have been banned since 2002 for blocking water flows, coagulating drainage systems, and hurdling surface waters to intrude into the ground they have staged a strong comeback as the enforcement agency – Directorate of Environment (DoE) — is nonchalant to the cause and scarcity of alternative packaging. Environmentalists, as reported by a vernacular daily, claimed that the city dwellers are dumping 1.4 crore poly bags every day which accounts for 80 percent of the city’s waterlogging.
The DoE has conducted no drives since 2015 that seemingly allowed a section of people to produce the harmful but handy shopping bags. On the other hand, the eco-friendly biodegrading jute bags are costly, inconvenient, and unavailable for dwellers. For a sustainable solution to the city’s water logging and smooth waste management, the DoE should be empowered to enforce the law harshly while alternative packaging systems must be in place and that should be handy and cheap.
Under the Bangladesh Environment Protect (Amendment 2002) Act 1995, the government in 2007 allowed the production of 55-micron thick polyethene bags for containing minrow and packaging which initiated the manufacturing of disposable thin polythene. All sections of people, including law enforcers and policymakers are innocently using the polybag each day due to unavailability of biodegradable bags. The old city is the den of polythene bag manufacturing factories which run from midnight to dawn which cause immense damage to the health of local people as well as to the atmosphere.
Polythene bags are clogging the drainage system and creating waterlogging in the capital and other places in Bangladesh as the country lacks a proper garbage disposal and management system. Poly bags are harmful not only to human health but also to air. Polythene decreases the fertility of farmland and affects the biodiversity in many ways. Disposing bags in the ground can have effects which continue for centuries as they take at least 400 years to decompose.
Surprisingly, the DoE has conducted only 38 drives against polythene production since 2011. The DoE claimed that the magistrate post remains vacant since 2015 which restrain them from conducting drives while they are forced to free arrestees who may have links with the ruling party men.
The government must put an end to polythene production and ensure availability of eco-friendly substitutes. If the use of poly bags is unavoidable in any particular field they should be managed in a way so that their harmful effect remains confined and does not hamper human habitats and the environment in any way.
