WHEN country’s mainstream media has been going through a frustrating period with covering a series of bad news, at that time we can get a sigh of relief seeing a positive move of the government to introduce environment-friendly substances in the international arena apparently to protect the nature. Recently, Bangladesh has tabled a draft resolution titled “Use of Natural Fibres such as Jute and Sisal” at the United Nations for its consideration during the 74th General Assembly. The resolution was tabled at the plenary of the second committee under Agenda item 24, ‘Agriculture development, food security and nutrition’. The negotiation process on it will start very soon at the UN headquarters where Bangladesh will try to encourage the member states to promote the use of environment-friendly natural fibres such as jute, cotton, and sisal.
Taking the matter to the UN for making it an international issue can be treated as a wise step to save the mankind. Obviously, the resolution will be an effective tool to raise global awareness about the importance of natural fibres among the people. It’s a common trend of people across the globe to use plastic or polythene bags to carry light goods. But these plastic bags tend to disrupt the environment in a serious way as they get into soil and slowly release toxic chemicals. Ultimately they break down into the soil making it unfertile.
In Bangladesh, the situation is much more dangerous as millions of plastic or polythene bags are used here everyday though the government had banned the item (thinner plastic bags) in 2002. People dispose of it everywhere in a way that it becomes one of the major causes of drainage blockage. However, in the recent years a small number of people are considering replacing plastic bags with the jute alternatives. Side by side, an anti-polythene campaign “Go Green Bangladesh” has also been launched for promoting commercial usage of Sonali Bags, a locally-made alternative to polythene.
We think, if the UN takes a resolution over the use of jute or cotton -fibre bags, it would create a big opportunity for Bangladesh to catch the lucrative global market by exporting its goods made of golden-fibre.
