Page 40 - Plastics News January 2020

internAtionAL news

Report explores keys to boosting Bangladesh court orders

plastics recovery government to ban single-use
plastics

s opposed to reducing and reusing, recycling has
Athe greatest potential to cut down on plastic waste, angladesh’s High Court
according to McKinsey & Co. But processing solutions don’t Bordered the government
lie solely with mechanical recycling. The research and to ban single-use plastics in
consulting firm in December published an article based coastal areas and in hotels
on publicly available data and interviews with plastics
recycling stakeholders. In exploring how the U.S. can and restaurants in one year to
boost its recovery of plastic packaging and food service combat pollution. Bangladesh's
items, the researchers drew a number of conclusions. high court ordered the
“While ‘reducing’ and ‘reusing’ can have some impact, government Monday, January
in most realistic scenarios there are large volumes of 6, to introduce steps by next
plastic waste that only increased recycling can handle,” year broadly banning single-
according to the report. “Further, there is a meaningful use plastics following a landmark case brought by
business opportunity associated with recycling – recovery environmental groups. The court also ordered the
of U.S. plastic packaging and foodservice plastic alone government to strictly enforce the ban on polythene
could represent a pool of earnings before interest, tax, under the existing law, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief
depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $2 billion to executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers
$4 billion per year.” Reducing plastic waste will require Association, told reporters. “We must curb the
use of plastics,” the lawyer said, adding it caused
serious health hazards and environmental pollution.
Pollution from single-use plastics is a major problem
in Bangladesh, where nearly 170 million people live in
a tiny sliver of low-lying land crisscrossed by hundreds
of rivers and tributaries. Waterways are frequently
clogged by plastic garbage, leading to frequent
flooding during the monsoon and causing widespread
damage to the sensitive coastal mangroves. "The high
court has directed the government to prohibit the
use of single-use plastic items in hotels, motels and
restaurants throughout Bangladesh within a year," said
improvements in consumer behavior and recycling Rizwana Hasan, a top environmental lawyer who moved
access; collection, sorting and processing infrastructure; the public interest litigation through the court. "The
economics and end-market demand; and value-chain government has also been directed to make all coastal
coordination, the report stated. Mechanical recycling areas free of polythene bags and single-use plastic
technologies are effective for plastic that is currently items within the same period," Hasan told Agence
sorted by materials recovery facilities (MRFs) but will France-Presse. The court also ordered the government
face limitations as collection rates increase, according to fully implement a landmark 2002 order to ban the
to McKinsey. And waste-to-energy plants have their use of polythene bags. Two decades ago Bangladesh
own issues in the U.S. The report pointed to “advanced became one of the first countries to ban polythene
recycling,” often referred to as “chemical recycling,” as bags, but the order was never enforced. About 60
an attractive alternative. McKinsey defined this category per cent of the plastic used is being recycled and the
as encompassing “conversion,” or processing plastics into remaining is left unattended, which is going into land
hydrocarbons to be used as fuels or feedstock for new fill. Plastic waste threatens not just beach aesthetics
plastics; “decomposition” of polymers into their building and the tourist experience. It poses a risk to public and
blocks, which can be processed into new plastic; and environmental health as well.
“purification.”

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