Over 200 plastic goods factories are located in Islambagh, Kamalbagh, Siddiqbazar and Mitford areas. While walking through the countless dark alleyways of Islambagh it will be hard to believe that one of the most vibrant recycling industries is making a silent revolution in these areas.

On a visit to the area, this correspondent found hundreds of houses where workers were sorting through the waste plastic before selling those to the factories making plastic products.

Sitting in such a small house by a narrow alley, Monowara Begum was sorting through waste plastic collected and sold by the waste pickers. Several gunny bags and cane baskets full of plastic pipes, mobile phone covers and plastic strips collected from worn out sandals were piled up there.

Monowara was sorting the waste plastic according to the colour and type. The red, blue and green strips were kept in different baskets. The strips from Bata sandals were of 'good quality' so those were kept in a different basket.

"The prices of plastic vary according to quality. Good plastic like the strips collected from Bata sandals sells at Tk 44 per kg. Low quality plastic sells at Tk 36 per kg," said Monowara who works for 12 hours a day, six days a week and earns around Tk 2000 a month.

Monowara's employer Shahidul Islam has been a waste plastic trader since 1978. He buys plastic collected by waste pickers and sells those to the factories producing recycled plastic products.

Around 75 percent of the plastic factories are in Islambagh and Kamalbagh areas where this trade is going on for more than 50 years.

"We bring waste plastic from Nolgola in Mitford. Waste plastic comes to Nolgola from all over the country. We buy it and then sell it to the owners of plastic shoe or bucket making factories," Shahidul said.

"Big outlets buy around 1,500 kg plastic a day. I buy around 1,000 kg a day which costs me around Tk 60,000," he said.

There are two types of business; one is for sorting out and the other for melting the plastic for making various products. These factories make various products like sandals, shoes, bucket, mug, toys and bowls.

"At present we are passing through a bad time because of the government's move to evict roadside scarp shops where waste pickers sell the things they collect from waste. These shops supply plastic and other waste to places like Nolgola. So the supply chain is disrupted," said Shahidul.

The plastic sandal and shoe making factories in the area use worn out plastic sandals as the only raw materials. The other factories also use waste plastic.

In the factories, the waste plastics are cut it in smaller pieces in a machine and then melted in a furnace to make various products.

Abdul Jalil, owner of a plastic shoe-making factory, told this correspondent how the cycle of reproduction is complete in his industry.

"The plastic shoes we sell in the market wear out in a few years. Those are then collected by waste pickers and sold to scarp shops. Through sorting and melting the shoes return to us and are reproduced. This is a cycle," said Jalil.

"Our shoes are mostly used by villagers and people from lower income group like rickshawpullers, beggars, vendors and labourers. Our business was in its peak when village people started wearing shoes," he said.

"At present we are faced with two big problems; one is the huge competition with Burmese shoes and the other is load-shedding. The influx of Burmese shoes is eating up our industry. These are of good quality and cost less. The regular load-shedding is disrupting our production," he said. "Earlier I used to employ around 30 workers and paid them Tk 1,000 each. But now I employ 10 workers and pay them Tk 3,00 each. The situation has been worse for the last two years. Earlier, we sold one dozen shoes at Tk 200 but now we sell at Tk 400 to 600. Demand is going down because of the high price but we have tagged this price to offset our costs," he said.

"Another problem is that we are experiencing a 12-hour load-shedding every day. It takes one hour to heat up the die machine. Often when the machine is fully heated up electricity goes off. I have to pay the bill for heating up the machine but I cannot make a single pair of shoes. When the electricity is back it takes another hour to heat up the machine," he said.

"There is no one to listen to our problems. Our ward commissioner is on the run. We went to the DESA office where no one pays heeds to us," said Jalil.

For the producers of plastic household utensils, the situation is almost the same. They are also incurring loss due to load-shedding.

Ali Hossain, owner of a factory producing plastic buckets, bowls and mugs, said, "The errant electricity supply we receive every day is disrupting smooth operations in the factories. Production has declined. It is not possible for me to pay off my workers," he said.

Hossain has a reconditioned Japanese machine to make die of utensils, which he bought at Tk 20 lakh.

Iftekhar Enayetullah, director, Waste Concern, said plastic recycling is needed in Bangladesh to save environment, create jobs and save millions of dollars of foreign currencies spent for importing virgin plastic.

In 2005 the total demand for plastic was 540,000 tonnes of which 295,167 tonnes (55 percent) was imported and 244,833 tonnes (45 percent) was recycled. The import value of the recycled amount was $350 million, he said.

Recycling of plastic ensures removal of significant quantities of non-degradable materials from the landfill saving the quality of soil and environment, he said.

According to him the management of plastic waste through source separation and proper recycling based on 4R approach (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover) should be encouraged at all levels.

If source separation (separating plastic waste from kitchen waste) can be enforced at household level then a good amount of time and water can be saved which is used to clean soiled waste plastic, he said.

About the frequent health problems of factory workers he said, those working in plastic factories suffer from headache and skin infection from dust, fume, crammed environment and lack of proper ventilation.

"We have signed a deal with DCC where we will collect 700 tonnes of waste each day. This waste will not go to Matuail and we will process it. The deal will be implemented from November this year," he said.

"To promote proper recycling we need no financial help from the government. We want only policy support," said Enayetullah.