Participating students urge the Govt. to ban Single Use Plastic (SUP) to protect the environment and public health. They demanded an awareness campaign jointly organized by Environment and Social Development Organization-ESDO and the Dept. of Environmental Science and Disaster Management (ESDM), Daffodil International University yesterday at University Campus in Dhaka.
The participant in an awareness campaign on ‘Single Use Plastic (SUP) Pollution in Bangladesh’ highlighted the need to ‘Beat the Plastic Pollution’ and emphasized an immediate ban on microbeads and the use of single-use of plastic (SUP).
Pro-Vice Chancellor of Daffodil International University, Professor Dr. S.M. Mahbub Ul Haque Majumder, Prof. Dr. Md. Abul Hashem, Former Chairman, Dept. of Chemistry, Jahangirnagar University and Executive board member of ESDO; Dr. A.B.M. Kamal Pasha, Associate Professor and Head, Department of Environmental Science and Disaster Management (ESDM), Daffodil International University (DIU) and Siddika Sultana, Executive Director of ESDO were present at the awareness campaign. There were approximately 50 students and teachers participated in the event.
Plastic bags, disposable single-use plastic items, and microbeads are three important sources of plastic pollution with plastics being described as the world’s number one consumer item. In business-to-consumer applications, plastic packaging is mostly single-use, and a majority of it is discarded the same year it is produced. Approximately, 250 tons of (SUPs) are produced as waste in Bangladesh per month. ESDO’s study suggests more comprehensive regulatory approaches must be explored that will integrate the life-cycle of plastic products: from production to use, and distribution to disposal. Countries must seriously consider alternatives to plastics that are causing damage per year. Focusing on this, in the campaign, there were one presentation, a questionnaire survey for students and question-answer sessions that mainly discussed the threat of single-use plastics to the environment and health, global plastic products, Bangladesh Scenario, control, and environmentally friendly alternatives of SUPs.
There are so many countries all over the world that have taken initiatives to Ban or reduce the consumption of Single-Use Plastics. Costa Rica now aims to become the first country in the world to ban all kinds of single-use plastics by 2021. In Vancouver of Canada, Great Britain, Sikinos island of Greece, New Delhi of India, Guatemala, Glasgow of Scotland, Taiwan, the European Union, Switzerland, and some states of America took strong initiatives for banning plastic straws immediately. Bangladesh also should come forward to stop the use of this Single-use plastic for saving the nature and environment.
