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One fined for processing toxic plastic waste

25 September 2011, 18:00 PM

METROPOLITAN

Staff Correspondent

Department of Environment (DoE) penalised the owner of a plastic factory in Ishwardi Tk 13.50 lakh and ordered closure of the factory for illegally producing raw materials for plastic products from toxic plastic waste. Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, director of DoE, called the factory owner, Ratan Kumar Agarwal, to the DoE office in Dhaka in person and handed the penalty. Utility connections to the factory are to be disconnected today. The factory Brothers Plastic Industries was set up at Ishwardi Export Processing Zone around four years back without DoE's permission, said Chowdhury. The toxic plastic waste used to be imported from the US, though Bangladesh banned its import, while the factory's products were exported to India, said Chowdhury. More than 100 countries banned import of toxic wastes to prevent dumping of such materials from the developed world to the developing. Around 150 metric tonnes of toxic plastic waste is used to produce 100 tonnes of the raw material every month. The owner continued production despite being served several DoE notices asking him to stop, he added. Toxic gases emitted while processing the waste are hazardous both for human health and the environment, said Chowdhury, citing technical experts.