Small personal steps of corporate employees will not solve waste crisis in Bangladesh
Incremental steps by consumers, employees of corporate brand owners, development institutions and the government are not going to progress this issue. Drastic system change and accountability of both private and public sector actors are critical
During the environmental campaign of 'Plastic Free July' there were multiple LinkedIn posts by corporate employees – from consumer goods companies to polymer manufacturers and retailers – about the 'reflections' they have after visiting some dump sites in Bangladesh.
Rather than focus on direct action they could implement as an entity holding decision-making power and KPI bonus incentives around plastic waste issues, the LinkedIn posts mentioned the need to take 'small personal steps', rather than use their influence to drive implementation at scale. But of course, this is just social media. What then is the reality?
The reality is Bangladesh is drowning in waste! Corporations, the government and financial institutions have not just failed the people of Bangladesh, they are watching us drown and telling us to change our behaviour and learn how to swim, or they cannot provide a solution.
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We conducted grassroots action research to prove it.
Bangladesh's population stands at over 164 million. The city of Chattogram has over 8 million people – roughly the same as New York City. We interviewed over 270 stakeholders in the plastic waste value chain, from households to retailers and general stores, municipal waste collectors, start-ups, plastic sorting centres and waste pickers. The findings are as follows:
Destroyed waste management systems
The recycling value chains are an important part of the solution to create the necessary market drivers in the waste management sector. However, financing such infrastructure to strengthen weak value chains is not the same as solving problems for completely decimated systems.
Recycling is not a value chain in Chattogram, it is a poverty chain, driving exploitative labour in Bangladesh and creating pull factors for unethical business.
We do not have a financing gap, we have a financing void which continues to be ignored, as evident in the 90-page World Bank National Action Plan for Sustainable Plastic Management in Bangladesh, only referring to the following financing requirements to deliver solutions:
- Public and private sectors 'allocating budgets'
- Creation of an anti-litter budget plan
- Government incentives for manufacturers to promote biodegradable alternatives
- Subsidised markets are built on Extended Producer Responsibility regulation (which is still only proposed for discussion and therefore unlikely to be robustly implemented in the next five years considering the implementation challenges of the single-use plastic bans).
As of July 2022, a Chattogram waste picker could sell the discarded HDPE (high-density polyethene) and LDPE (light density polyethene) international brand Shampoo bottles to the counterfeit market at $0.27 (Tk25) per bottle. The pricing offered by the same international brands for collecting waste plastic sachets was $0.021 (2Tk) per kilogramme. The economics clearly do not add up.
Collection of 1kg of plastic bottles yields a substantially greater profit for any waste collector in both formal and informal collection chains, taking up far less space than collecting 1kg of sachets, primarily composed of PP (polypropylene) multi-layer.
This is a textbook market failure, the consequence of which results in mass dumping by seaside yards and open burning of plastic waste, releasing toxic gases such as dioxins and heavy metals into the air, contaminating it.
Corporations claiming they are acting responsibly, means being accountable or having a duty to act. Of the 40 retailers interviewed, none had been brand distributors on plastic waste or sustainability issues.
Municipality waste workers provided multiple examples of brand representatives tracking this pricing disparity for years and yet they have not sought to implement action in the community surrounding their factories, where much of this illicit trade is occurring.
The lack of policy enforcement is well known in Bangladesh. Despite 20 years of a single-use plastic bag ban, the use of extra polybag packaging remains widespread. Focusing solely on the policy does not solve the absence of implementation, it creates a screen for corporations to hide behind and point fingers.
The broken reality
The aforementioned World Bank National Action Plan states a 50% recycling rate can be achieved by 2025, meaning three years from today, through the financing measures listed above.
Based on our grassroots market research and impact modelling, this would require over $800 million to be invested in the Chattogram waste management sector, deployed within the next 12 months in order to reach such an impact target. This makes the lack of tangible commitment or measurable action from either the public or private sector even more devastating. We simply are not going to get there.
Women and children will remain trapped working in the garbage dumps for $1.06 -to $2.12 (Tk100 to Tk200) per day, primarily collecting bottle materials that are being bought by counterfeit operators, while the mass consumption sachets continue to leak into waterways or openly burnt in our air.
Businesses will continue to profit from avoiding their responsibilities to ensure child-labour-free supply chains while claiming to meet recycling targets.
Incremental steps by consumers, employees of corporate brand owners, development institutions and the government are not going to progress this issue. Drastic system change and accountability of both private and public sector actors are critical.
But our generation is on our own and our society expects us to find and build our own solutions: learn to swim while we are drowning in the waste of corporate excess and greed.
Action drives impact. We are looking for additional funding partners and collaborators to take our action research to the next level and generate activities and interventions at scale.
Key insights from our action research of the Chattogram plastic waste management system:
- Bangladesh has a financial void for sustainable waste management solutions.
- Over $800 million (estimated value) would need to be invested in Chattogram's waste management infrastructure for the city to reach the 2025 recycling target.
- Drastic system change and demonstrated accountability by both private and public sector actors are critical.
- Recycling is not a value chain in Chattogram, it is a poverty chain
Sayma Akhter Jafrin is an Economics and Finance graduate from Asian University for Women and is currently working there as a teaching fellow. She is a Global Shaper at the World Economic forum.
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.
