Where throw-away plastic finds a new purpose

In Mandarta Bazar in Daulatpur upazila in Manikganj, Aklima Begum was sitting with some other women inside a roadside shop filled with bundles of plastic straps. The women were weaving the plastic straps to make a mat.

In front of the shop, a range of plastic products were on display, all made from plastic straps.

Aklima is the owner of the factory, and she has been in this business for 15 years. The plastic straps, made from PET bottles, are manufactured elsewhere, for the packaging industry. But they have found this curious use in this area. 

Aklima said there are around 30 such factories in Manikganj. Plus, there are 10-12 more factories in the adjacent upazila: Nagarpur in Tangail. In fact, from Manikganj's Ghior to Tangail's Nagarpur, we saw 8-10 big factories on the side of the roads. 

These factories are crafting a range of materials widely used in rural settings, such as roof ceilings for tin-shed houses, rice paddy baskets, mats, garden fences, soil erosion control fences etc. 

Ironically, thanks to the evilest property of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), i.e. the durability of the material, these products have gained popularity among the locals, and people from other parts of the country are now taking note of it. As a result, sales are impressive.

"I sell 2.5 to three tonnes of products every month," Aklima told The Business Standard. "The products sell at Tk90 to Tk110," she added.

The business was started by Aklima's husband who had a shop in Barapusha, Nagarpur, in the Tangail district.

"My husband used to have a small business. Later when he got ill, I took the steering wheel because we needed the business to ensure our children complete their education. 

But then, the business got better," the entrepreneur said.

Aklima used to have four factories in different places in Tangail and Manikganj. She now runs two of them and sold the remaining two as it became difficult for her to manage them remotely. In two of the factories, Aklima has 30 employees.

We know PET plastic does not decompose. So how long do these products last? We asked.

"It doesn't break down," Aklima said. "I bought back a soil retention fence 10 years after selling it for Tk80 per kg, and resold it for Tk95," said Aklima.

The Hydra of our time

For the welfare of the planet and all the living beings inhabiting it, it is widely acknowledged that there is no alternative to stop manufacturing and using single-use plastic products for reasons already known to everyone.

But even if, let's say hypothetically, we manage to do it overnight (which is beyond even a distant possibility), there is no easy and/or sustainable way to get rid of the products which have already been used and thrown away. These things take hundreds of years to disintegrate and degrade, but they never decompose. This means all the plastic that ends up in the environment remains there in one form or another.

Due to this exact same reason, some think it is better to reuse and repurpose single-use plastic products where they need to last long.

Countries like China have been doing this for a long time, and countries like Bangladesh have been supplying the raw material, which is plastic flakes made from PET bottles, to them.

Five years back, when the Chinese government announced a ban on imports of 24 different recyclables, including PET bottles, Bangladeshi flake producers faced a serious crisis.

But they soon found a way. Now, local factories are manufacturing plastic straps by recycling PET bottles, which have found some unorthodox use in this part of the country.

In Barapusha in Nagarpur, a local UP member, Mohammad Ishak has been doing this for five years. "I was looking for an exceptional business idea. Then I found this business. Now 70-80 people from my village work in my factory. They are mostly women," said Ishak.

Ishak said the products sell at different rates, depending on the type. Some products, such as paddy baskets, sell at around Tk160 per kg. 

The workers also get paid for every kg of the product they make. The rate is Tk65 per kg.

These factories have a high concentration in Manikganj and Tangail, but are slowly spreading here and there in the country.

Ishak said someone put his phone number on a Facebook post featuring his enterprise and now people from all over the country keep calling him to enquire if he can deliver products to their places. Ishak said he is overwhelmed with work and requested us not to publish his phone number in the story!

In front of his factory-cum-store, we saw some customers loading bundles of products on a mechanised van.

Mohammad Shohag Uddin, a customer from Dhuburia Union in Nagarpur, bought three bundles of soil retention fence. 

"We are building a new house. We have raised the homestead for that purpose. I'm buying this product to retain the soil of the homestead," Shohag said. He bought the bundles at a rate of Tk140 per kg. Shohag said he had bought the same material two years back for another application. The products cost Tk100 per kg back then. He added that bamboo fences do not last long but this material does not decay.

The source

Two different categories of plastic straps are used in this craft: used, and fresh. Used straps come from spinning mills which are cheaper; Tk50 per kg, and fresh ones cost about Tk30 higher.

The straps sourced from the mills come with imported cotton bales fastened to such strappings. The fresh ones are sourced from the aforementioned local plastic flake manufacturers who launched this industry, after China banned the import of plastic waste.

Moonlight PET flakes and the PET strap industry, the first of these manufacturers, remain the key PET strap manufacturer and exporter of the country to date. Its CEO, Habibur Rahman Jewel, told TBS that his firm now manufactures 12 tonnes of PET straps every day, most of which is exported, and a small part of it is sold locally. 

Jewel said PET straps are not widely used by local industries. Rather, Polypropylene (PP) straps are more commonly used in Bangladesh for bundling items for shipping. 

The plastic craft-makers of the Manikganj-Tangail area source their fresh traps from these local strap manufacturers.