Polybag back in business?
The ban has lost its teeth
Without perhaps realising it, we are losing our battle with polythene shopping bags. We had discarded it six years ago under a nationwide ban. We carved a good name among the developing countries by the move but now the reputation is wearing thin. The almost ubiquitous reappearance of the non-biodegradable material poses a great threat to environment, particularly by choking the already dysfunctional sewerage system, not to speak of its insidious effect on soil quality and public health.
Part of the success of the earlier ban was attributable to public consciousness of the need to do away with it and a change of habit switching over to substitutes. But this no longer holds true. The issue is not so much though of habit as it is of unrestricted availability. Our City page investigation reveals the sources of supply being recycling from the discarded polybags and its unbridled manufacturing in old part of Dhaka with its wholesale networks.
The question of government's monitoring slack and the problem with operating mobile court in this area following separation of the judiciary from the executive will have to be addressed to ameliorate the situation. The law ministry needs to incorporate Environment Conservation Act under the Mobile Court Ordinance to enable mobile court drives against offenders of the ban. Previously, the environmental lawyers could request the DC office for a magistrate to operate a mobile court but this job is no longer under DC's office. The dividend of a law is best derived from application through a court. Law enforcers can hardly deliver the goods.
Six years is a long time to have had alternative packaging materials in place. This has not obviously happened. So long as that is the case the recalcitrant manufacturers will find ways to circumvent the law. The administration should get a move on to provide fiscal benefits to entrepreneurs intending to generate safe alternative packaging materials.
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