Ban on polythene: Punish rule violators, demand environmentalists

Environmentalists today demanded exemplary punishment for the people who are violating the law banning production and use of polythene.

They also demanded a proper action from the government to stop import of raw materials of polythene and tissue bags.

They made the demands at a seminar marking the Earth Day which will be observed tomorrow. Save the Environment Movement organised the programme at its Kalabagan office in Dhaka.

AbdusSobahan, general secretary of the organisation, said although production of Polythene is banned by law, but its production has been increasing day by day.

He said that a single family uses four polythene bags everyday and around 2 crore polythene bags are being used in Dhaka on a daily basis, Sobahan said.

"We were praised worldwide when we banned production and use of polythene but we could not implement it," he said.

In his keynote paper, Prof Ahmad Kameuzzaman Majumder, chairman of Environment Science department of Stamford University Bangladesh, cited information of Waste Concern to say that 3.5 kgplastic itemswere used by a person in the countryin 2014.

Although, use of polythene in Bangladesh  is lesser than our neighbouring countries, but it is more harmful for our country mainly because of poor waste management.