Compostable packaging is made locally. Why is plastic still everywhere?

Bangladesh banned polythene and plastic bags back in 2002, becoming the first country in the world to have done so. This encouraged and forced many retailers to become innovative and shift to using environment-friendly packaging alternatives such as paper and fabric.

Some got innovative in the opposite direction, and started using polythene bags with no carry handles to bypass the law.

Twenty-plus years later, even after the ban and relevant High Court rules, there is no stopping the use of single-use plastic in general, and polythene in specific.

Every day, 3,000 factories produce 1 crore 40 lakh polythene bags in the country. Between 2005 and 2020, per capita consumption of plastic products in Bangladesh in a year increased from three kg to nine kg, with a significant portion ending up in land and rivers. 

But land, rivers and the sea are not the last places they are found in. Microplastic has now made its way, through the food chain, to human blood and breast milk, posing a direct and severe threat to human health. This has led humans to intensify their search for plastic alternatives. 

Bioplastic, which can biodegrade without harming the environment, has existed for quite some time. Even in Bangladesh, there are a handful of industrial-scale bioplastic manufacturers, with a production capacity of around 500 tons per month.

While this is nothing compared to the actual usage of plastic packages; even the small amount of biopolymer produced locally is actually not used by the local manufacturers. More than 90% of the bioplastic is exported, and except for a few, the local companies stick to fossil-based plastic to cut costs.

Nonetheless, the local companies who have chosen to spend some extra bucks on environment-friendly packaging materials say despite the increased expense, such products are beneficial for their brand image and business.

The alternative scene

Ecovia, a local startup, has been manufacturing cellulose-based polymers from cotton jhut (RMG waste). The company has set up a patented mechanism, which enables them to produce 120-ton compostable plastic per month. The actual demand, however, requires them to use 80% of the production capacity, according to Rashik Hasan, the co-founder of the startup.

So, why are the local companies not rushing to get their hands on compostable plastic-like material for packaging?

"More than 90% of our products are sold to foreign buyers," Rashik Hasan told The Business Standard. The company manufactures apparel bags, shopping bags and grocery bags in general, and offers customisation options for any industry.

The green entrepreneur noted that they are ready to set up more production lines if the demand rises. "Good news is, the demand is rising every year," Rashik said, adding, "by about 30%." 

There are at least five industry-scale manufacturers in the country right now, who are producing bioplastic material for packaging. 

Among the biopolymers, some naturally degrade under the soil, and others require industrial setup to be degraded and are not 'automatically' composted. There is no such arrangement in the country currently, as bioplastic usage is still very low. 

While some bioplastic manufacturers source the raw material from inside the country, others import the bioplastic pallets from countries like China. 

A new generation of local companies, meanwhile, are showing an interest in using biopolymer rather than conventional plastic.

Fabrilife, a readymade garment company selling domestically, uses environment-friendly bioplastic for packaging. "We are using it from an ethical point of view. We cannot destroy the environment we live in," said Riyadh Chowdhury, the co-founder of the company.

Talking about other benefits, he mentioned, "Our brand value is rising thanks to such environmentally-friendly moves." The company, which was established in 2020, uses half a million pieces of such products every year.

It costs them 10-30% higher, which Riyadh says is okay. The company uses bioplastic for 97% of its packaging needs.

Recover, a Spanish company also operating in Bangladesh, spends Tk80 lakh on bioplastic packaging for their goods. The company manufactures cotton out of jhut and sells it to spinning mills. The company packages the cotton bales in compostable material.

There is a fine symbiotic relationship between Recover and Ecovia. An essential by-product of textile waste recycling is cotton dust, which Recover – a company trying to produce zero-waste – was struggling to put into use.

After much trial and error, eventually, a collaboration kicked off between the two. Now, Recover is one of the major sources of cotton dust for Ecovia, and the latter in turn supplies compostable packaging to the former.

Recover has to spend an additional Tk100 per kg of packaging material trying to be sustainable.

What is the incentive for this extra expenditure, we asked.

"The very goal of our business is to become sustainable. We make this compromise to achieve this goal, and the extra money we pay cannot be considered a big loss," Abdullah Al Mamun, the procurement manager at Recover, told TBS.

Why the reluctance?

Experts maintain that fossil-based plastic is not actually cheap; it is made to look so by allowing the manufacturers to externalise the cost, meaning the environment and human health have to pay the price eventually.

They further observe that if laws are enforced to make manufacturers internalise the cost of environmental impact, such plastic products will also seem a lot more expensive.

In November last year, a collaborative initiative of the country's top businesses and development organisations embarked on its journey to practise and promote the sustainable development agenda. 

Called Bangladesh Sustainability Alliance (BSA), the platform aims to mobilise cross-value chain collaboration, bringing together brand owners, financial institutions, recyclers and the development sector to address plastic pollution in the country, with an eye to expanding its scope to other areas of environmental protection and sustainability. 

The then Special Envoy to the Prime Minister on Environment and Climate Change Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, who is now the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, was present at the inauguration. 

The alliance consists of big names such as Pran-RFL, Unilever Bangladesh, Bangladesh Petrochemicals Company, Marico Bangladesh, InterContinental Hotels, BRAC, Standard Chartered Bangladesh and PepsiCo Bangladesh. 

On 31 January 2024, BRAC organised a discussion titled 'Sustainability Shorts,' where the members of BSA participated and discussed the challenges they faced adopting plastic alternatives.

A representative of a milk-selling company said they can sell a one-litre pack in conventional plastic for Tk80, whereas the same amount of milk in biodegradable packets cost them Tk100, making it difficult to sell.

"Who will pay for the extra cost?" he asked.

A young director of another big company frankly admitted that when they design a product, the thought of cutting costs to be more competitive comes first, not the one to save the environment.

An environmental activist, however, mentioned that when he was little, many snacks including biscuits were sold without the need to wrap them in fancy plastic packets.

"Now, biscuits are kept on a plastic tray which is wrapped in another plastic packet," he said. Others nodded in agreement.

Discussants also agreed that plastic pollution has become a 'cultural' problem, and plastic is used in many places that are not essential.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) and a lawyer of Bangladesh Supreme Court emphasised that plastic is not a cheap product; while it may appear inexpensive, its environmental costs are enormous. 

She added that the proliferation of plastic and polyethene use and pollution remains unchecked due to a lack of political will.

Although the demand and supply of bioplastic is on a slow rise in the country, manufacturers, consumers and activists agree that there is no alternative to reducing plastic use across the industries.

"We do have proper laws in the country to regulate the arbitrary use of plastic products, but we need to enforce these laws to halt plastic use and ensure effective waste management," said Rizwana.