Ishwardi (Pabna) Correspondent :
Harmful rubber, plastic wasters are being used to boil rice in the attic of Ishwardi. In the hope of making extra profit, the owners of the huts of the Husking Mills, without considering the environment, have threatened the environment and the lives of the people by using the waste of various shoe, rubber, foam and plastic factories.
Within a short time of the use of jute, the leaves around the boiler have changed color and are shrinking. The owners of the huts are now selling husks to auto rice mills and cattle and chicken feed manufacturers due to rising prices of husk paddy in the market. With the exception of a couple of huts, about three hundred and fifty huts are now being used as fuel instead of husk.
It has been found out that the price of one kg of lie is 5 taka. And the price of husk is 10-12 taka. The heat and durability of rubber, plastic and foam waste fuel is much higher than that of husk for cooking rice. Due to the increase in the price of husk and the low price of jhut, the owners of the huts have started using jhut without considering the environmental damage. In all, for every 250 sacks of paddy, the profit is more than 10-12 thousand taka.
Zulmat Haider, President of the Rice Mill Owners’ Association, said that at present, contracts have been signed to supply food to 308 husking and 17 auto-rice mills. There are also some flats outside the contract. Jhut is being used instead of husk as the cost of cooking rice is less and it is more profitable to sell husk. At present, as the paddy is wet, Auto Reich has to buy extra husk from outside for fuel. Besides, cattle and poultry feed factories are buying and refining the husk and selling it in the animal feed market at the rate of Tk 38-40 per kg. The owners of the huts are selling husk at the rate of Tk 10-12 per kg, he said.
Manjur Rahman, owner of Joynagar Sampad Traders, said that except for him and a few others, everyone was using jhut instead of husk. He uses German technology boilers and sells about 150 sacks outside, excluding fuel sap from 250 sacks of paddy. He said that the plants in the vicinity of the mill where the jute is being used have already started to be affected. Several companies including Aronkola area of Ishwardi are buying these jhutas from Dhaka and supplying them to Ishwardi’s huts. Shafiqul Islam, a supplier of jute, said that he was bringing jute from Dhaka and selling it at a price of Tk 5.5 per kg. Although he trades in cotton jute, he is supplying jute to various shoe, rubber, cap, foam and plastic factories as the heat of the fire is transient in the cloth jute.
