Plastic products have made our life easy. But with the use of plastic, we made our environment permanently dirty. Plastic waste management has become a serious global issue as it is associated with risks to human health. Plastic waste enters into our food chain, depletes ecosystems and affects biodiversity. Plastic materials are petroleum based products and it has become a major polluting substance both for land and our marine environment. World water bodies, rivers and oceans are becoming clogged with the plastic waste and landfill sites are rapidly running out as the volumes of plastic product increases. Unfortunately, 90% of all of the trash floating on the world ocean’s surface are plastic products. Published reports suggest that more than five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in the world oceans. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 years would be required to degrade these floating plastics fully. Production cost of one bottle of water is much bigger than a bottle of tap water. Media reports indicate that in the USA production of bottled water uses 17 million barrels of oil a year. Researchers report that US citizens buy annually about 29 billion water bottles and only one out of six water bottles is recycled. People in the United States throw away more than 60 million plastic water bottles each day and major parts of them end up in landfills or in the streets, parks and water bodies. As the water bottles are made from non- biodegradable plastics, most of these discarded water bottles are finally landing at the landfills and in the world oceans. One estimate indicates that US landfills overflowing with 2 million tonnes of discarded water bottles. (U.S. citizens alone consume nearly 25% of natural resources and produce 30% of wastes and pollutants). Plastic production involves huge volumes of fossil fuels. BBC report (09 February 2018) suggested that 78 million tonnes of plastic packaging materials were produced in the world every year, of which 40% went straight to landfill. 32% of it leaks into the environment, 14% is incinerated and only 14% is collected for recycling. Of that, only 2% gets recycled into the same quality of plastic.’
Plastic wastes are not only a problem of the ‘developed world’ but equally important for Bangladesh. Waste Concern, a Bangladeshi NGO which earned fame for promoting waste recycling, carried out a study in collaboration with the government’s Department of Environment and released the study findings in February 2019. The study found that a total of 821,250 tonnes of plastic waste was generated annually in the urban centers of Bangladesh while some 207,685 tonnes was dumped in marine environment annually. Further, the study found that 36% of the plastic waste was recycled in informal sector of the country, while 39 percent dumped in landfills and 25 percent leaked to environment. Major parts of the leaked plastic wastes finally went to the Bay of Bengal through the rivers. A separate study by the Environment and Social Development Organization suggests that 87,000 tonnes of single-use plastics, including plastic bags, bottles, cups, plates and straws are thrown away in Bangladesh every year. Reuters reports (6 January 2020) that Bangladesh High Court ordered the government ‘to ban single use plastics in coastal areas and in hotels and restaurants within a year to combat pollution’. Director General of the Department of Environment AKM Rafique Ahamed told the press that the government banned polythene in 2002 but could not stop its use as the common people were yet to realize the dangers of the materials. Despite government’s efforts to encourage and promote use of biodegradable jute bags in the country, polythene bags are present everywhere.
A report published in ‘the Guardian’ on 16 May 2020 suggests that the Dutch chemical company Avantium had been progressing towards mass production of ‘cardboard bottles’ from the bioplastic for the major bear making company Carlsberg. The world’s leading food and beverage companies Coca-Cola and Danone supported for the investment. As reported, the Avantium company CEO Tom van Aken expected that the investment for the plant would see the greenlight by the end of this year. He hoped to progress his plant production in partnership with the major food and drink companies of the world. As reported the bioplastic production would be relying on the technology that enables to break down sugars into simple chemical structures and rearrange to form a new ‘plant based recyclable plastic’ resilient enough to contain carbonated drinks. Scientists have earlier discovered the technology to produce bioplastic from naturally grown starch and cellulose materials including corn, wheat, sugar, avocado, human waste. Bioplastic is also a plastic made from plant or other biological materials instead of petroleum.
Unlike conventional plastic products, bioplastic uses no fossil fuels for its production and has the properties to degrade in nature ‘much faster than normal plastics do.’ Published reports indicate that the recycling of bioplastic is dependent on the type of polymer and its characteristics that have been used for its production. Used bioplastic materials can be dumped for a landfill, recycled or sent to industrial site for composting.
North Indian farmers (specially in Panjab and Haryana) and the farmers in Thailand’s northern province Lampang have been burning rice straws after harvesting to clear the field. The smoke containing various harmful gases and ash (particulate matter) badly pollute the surrounding environment. Published reports suggest that NASA Earth Observatory has estimated that in October every year, farmers after harvesting of rice in Panjab and Haryana states in India burn approximately seven to eight million tonnes of rice straw and other agriculture wastes at their fields. People in the said states and in Delhi have been experiencing increasing health threats from the smoke pollution every year due to the prevailing practices. Such a practice is not uncommon in different parts of Bangladesh during winter. Keeping the agriculture wastes, including rice straw unaddressed in the field may enrich the farmlands with time but it will add a lot of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Young entrepreneurs in collaboration with the scientists in the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Chiang Mai University in Thailand have come up with unique solutions to this problem. They have developed a technology that can convert agriculture wastes into pulp and process it to make biodegradable cutlery. Rice straws are no more wastes and burden for the farmers, rather it can deliver products with impervious coating on the eco-friendly tableware for several hours and serve as a sustainable alternative to plastic and polystyrene products. Not only in India and Thailand, disposable and biodegradable plates, bowls, cups have been used in major cities in Bangladesh as well.
A presentable, useful and convenient biodegradable plate produced from agriculture wastes can be found at Chawkbazar in Dhaka paying only Tk 12/piece. Instead of engaging a lot of efforts and expenses for using conventional tableware and cutleries, nowadays urban gatherings conveniently use biodegradable cutleries. Use of biodegradable products are not only cost effective, but also demonstrates the users’ care for environment. Local media further reports that a Gazipur based Bangladeshi company ‘Expo Accessories Ltd.’ has been producing biodegradable packaging materials from corn or maze as an alternative to polythene bags since 2014. The company initially targeted (local and foreign) 30 garment factories and the demands for the product has been rising gradually. As published report says, Expo Accessories has been producing environment-friendly products including biodegradable and compostable bags, shirt clips, collar stays, hang tags, hangers using corn fiber raw material imported from India. Self-life of the biodegradable products is around 12-15 months. The biodegradable bags costs within 5-8 US Cents but the consumers prefer them as they are environment friendly and international famous brands like them.
It is important that the environment-friendly products use is encouraged with various incentives and policy supports.
Mushfiqur Rahman;
Mining Engineer,
Writes on Energy and Environment Issues
