Rethinking regulation: A low-cost solution to Bangladesh’s brick kiln pollution

Brick kilns have long been recognised as a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change and posing serious health risks to workers and surrounding communities.

A recent study published in Science by researchers from Stanford University, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), and other institutions points to a feasible way forward: working directly with brick kiln owners and workers to implement more efficient workflows using materials and equipment that are already in use.

Existing countermeasures have largely failed

While the government of Bangladesh has taken measures to mitigate the harmful impact of brick kilns, these have not proved effective. 

According to the Environment Conservation Act, 2010, and the Brick Manufacturing and Brick Kiln Establishment (Control) Act, 2013, brick kilns cannot be established within one kilometre of any settlement, agricultural land, hill, forest, or water body, and require official environmental clearance. 

However, compliance remains extremely low among operational brick kilns across the country.

Over 75% of brick kilns are illegally located within one kilometre of a school, and only 40% of officially registered kilns have environmental clearance. Despite explicit legal prohibitions, most brick kilns across the country continue to use topsoil from agricultural land to make bricks. 

The law also mandates that at least 50% of bricks manufactured should be hollow bricks—produced using modern technology that is less polluting and more energy-efficient than traditional fired clay bricks. As of 2022, however, only around 5% of kilns exclusively produced hollow bricks.

A major issue with these regulations is the near-impossibility of finding locations that fully comply with all the stipulated conditions. For instance, brick kilns cannot legally be built within one kilometre of any of the four rivers surrounding Dhaka city—yet this is precisely where almost all of Dhaka's brick kilns are currently situated. They cannot be relocated to agricultural land further from the city, nor into the city itself. This likely explains why, despite government-led drives shutting down around 1,000 non-compliant kilns, 75% had resumed operations by June 2024.

A lack of economic incentive presents another key obstacle. Brick kilns serve as a main source of Local Resource funds for various government and non-governmental programmes, creating limited motivation to shut them down. Furthermore, modern kilns that produce hollow bricks are approximately 25 times more expensive to construct and operate.

An alternative way forward

Replicating solutions from high-income countries—such as hollow bricks manufactured in costly, environmentally friendly facilities—may not be feasible given the economic realities and technological limitations of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The recent Science study therefore tested a new intervention involving simple, low-cost operational changes, such as continuous fuel feeding and more efficient brick stacking, all within existing facilities.

The randomised controlled trial was conducted across 276 brick kilns in Bangladesh, which were assigned to either control or intervention groups. All kilns in the intervention arms received information, training, and technical support to adopt operational improvements aimed at enhancing fuel combustion and reducing heat loss. These changes focused particularly on how coal is fed during the firing process and how bricks are stacked inside the kiln, alongside several other aspects of operation.

Among those who complied, the intervention resulted in a 23% reduction in energy consumption, a 20% decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, and a 20% reduction in particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5)—a major contributor to air pollution. The intervention was well received: 65% of the kilns in the intervention arms adopted the recommended firing and stacking practices. Interestingly, 20% of control group kilns also adopted the practices, indicating strong demand. 

Kiln owners benefited financially as well, with an increase in the production of high-quality bricks and a decrease in fuel expenditure per brick. These short-term economic gains and the absence of capital investment likely contributed to the intervention's success, prompting officials from the Government of Bangladesh to encourage its nationwide implementation.

Exploiting the profit motive for environmental gains

Many LMICs have limited capacity or short-term incentives to enforce environmental regulations. As a result, industries such as brick manufacturing continue to employ heavily polluting, energy-inefficient, and suboptimal practices. To reduce environmental and health harms going forward, it is essential to identify and widely adopt locally appropriate, economically viable strategies.

This study demonstrates that improving energy efficiency can meaningfully reduce pollution while delivering economic benefits to business owners. Aligning financial incentives with environmental and public health improvements offers a promising path forward for the brick kiln industry and other similarly underregulated sectors.

Ornob Alam, PhD is a scientific writer at icddr,b.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.