Vegetable vendors are dependent on the polybags or nylon netbags, as they sell products in them to customers at the markets like Karwan Bazaar, Krishi Market, Town Hall Bazaar, New Market and Hatirpul Bazaar.

But Director General of the Department of Environment (DoE) Omar Faruque Khan claimed, "We have always been active in enforcing the ban and seized piles of polybags several times. I went to several polybag-producing factories in the city and shut them down."

"We sincerely want to stop it, but cannot clamp down on the dishonest manufacturers of polybags, as we are understaffed.," said the director general.

"People have no alternative to polybags for shopping now. If jute bags had been available in the market, many would not have bought polybags," said Khan.

"Many factories produce polybags for garment factories. If we come to know about any factory producing polybags, we will immediately take action against them. But it's difficult for us to detect the factories operating in secret," said Khan.

Director of Jute Diversification Promotion Centre Dr Abdullah said, "There is scope for utilisation of shopping jute bags. But this is not happening here." The jute promotion centre is a government project, funded by the European Union (EU).

When the polythene bags were banned, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) tried to sell traditional jute bags, but the sale ran out of steam.

"Thousands of traditional shopping jute bags have long been heaped in the BJMC warehouse as they did not sell well in the market because of high price," said Abdullah.

"We can still popularise jute bags if the mills replace their old equipment -- which produce thick jute yarn -- with high-end machines that can produce thin yarn. If thin yarn is abundant in the market we can sell jute bags at low price," he said.

"The jute industry has earned a bad image. Many entrepreneurs tried to replace old equipment but did not get credit from banks for replacements," said Abdullah.

"If we can provide the entrepreneurs with credit, they will surely come forward to set up modern jute mills to produce low-cost polybags," he said.