PRESS RELEASE, WORLD CLEAN-UP DAY 2018
Dhanmondi, Dhaka- 19 th September 2018
Fifty volunteers from Shaheed Bir Uttam Lt. Anwar Girls College and Dhanmondi Govt Girls High School, students from Daffodil International University and ESDO team members did the drive in the occasion of “World Cleanup Day” and BFFP brand audit on September 16, Sunday. Environment and Social Development Organization-ESDO initiated this movement to create public awareness and knocking the extended producer’s responsibility.
After the brand audit and cleanup activities, 97.5 kg single use plastic packaging and sachets were collected.On the basis of product types, it was found that for Household product, Food product, Personal care product and for other mixed items, the total weight of plastics were 40.31 kg, 32.806 kg, 0.108 kg and 23.83 kg respectively. Sample were collected for 2 hours
covering 1 km area of Dhanmondi lake. So for the whole day, if the sample collection is for 8 hours, from the estimation it could be said that for whole Dhanmondi lake that is 4.34 km 2 in size, the total amount of plastic waste will be approximately 50,543.4 kg in a month. Most of the non-recyclable plastic goes into the lake which creates pollution into the water bodies and severly affecting aquatic life.
From the Brand Audit, 120 brands of 82 producers were identified, which includes corporations like PRAN-RFL, Abul Monem Ltd., Bombay Sweets Company, Nomad Foods Limited, Dhaka Ice cream International Limited, Nestle, Unilever, Square, Meridian Group,. and Perfetti Van Melle Bangladesh Pvt Ltd.
In the opening of the cleaning and auditing drive, former Secretary and ESDO Chairperson Syed Marghub Murshed urged the government to take necessary steps to protect our water bodies from plastic and micro plastic pollution. He said, “we are in a global pollution area, so we need collective efforts to tackle this situation. Manufacturers cannot green wash their role of plastic pollution crisis”, he added.
The Brand Audit tool is designed by Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) Global movement. Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) is the member of this Break Free From Plastic movement. This Brand Audit is mainly done to create awareness among the public and also for the manufacturers who are using single uses plastics in their products packaging and also to motivate them for using the alternatives of it.
For more information, please visit - www.esdo.org
Contact Information:
Mohammad Nazimuzzaman
Program Associate (Communication)
ESDO.
Mobile: 01714737913 (For Emergency)
Email: nazimuzzaman@esdo.org
Written by Mohammad Nazimuzzaman of ESDO
