Success of EPR rules depends on proper enforcement

Every day, Safia Khan, a 30-year-old corporate professional in Dhaka’s bustling Mirpur neighbourhood, moves through a world saturated with plastic.

KUET students innovate eco-friendly furniture from plastics.

About 3,000 kilogrammes of single-use plastic waste are dumped by tourists on the Saint Martin's Island of Cox's Bazar every day during the peak season, according to The Earth, a non-profit organisation working on community development and environment.

The country has been seeing a worsening plastic waste problem over the last decade and a half, and recently, a small step has been taken towards possible mitigation.

Plastics are silently piling on the environmental miseries of Bangladesh, one of the most climate change-vulnerable countries in the world.

Only 36 per cent of the 8.25 lakh tonnes of plastic waste Bangladesh produced in 2019 were recycled whereas the amount was 51 per cent in 2006, a matter of big concern for the country, an expert said today.

Mismanaged plastic waste of the metropolis has turned the Karnaphuli, on whose banks the country’s key sea port is located, into the top plastic-digesting river.

Private sector companies who daily contribute to plastic pollution must come up with ways to manage it.

Raw Tech, a Bangladesh-Hong Kong joint venture, is set to invest Tk 50 crore to produce fibres from wasted plastic bottles with a view to grabbing a share of the market for polyester staple fibres currently dominated by Chinese firms.

A sperm whale found dead in a national park in Indonesia had nearly six kilogrammes (13.2 lbs) of plastic waste, including 115 cups, in its stomach, park officials say.