Polythene has been a common use in modern day to day life because of its low cost and availability. People can access these plastic bags very easily and as a result, the use of these bags is increasing day by day. It has been estimated that between 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed annually. This implies that on average, a person uses a plastic bag for only 12 minutes.
Not surprisingly, people keep on using them more often and in so doing pollute the environment mostly through poor disposal. Our prodigious reliance on plastic bags has created major environmental issues such as groundwater contamination, congested landfills and ocean wreckage that the future generations will never be able to get over the situation if we do not take decisive action to stop the malpractice.
Not only is the environment getting affected – and so negatively by single-use plastics; much of the marine life is severely affected. Having been broken into small pieces, plastics find their way into the food chain of marine life – the likes of seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish which have unknowingly started eating the plastics. Sadly, plastics do not get digested. This explains how hundreds of species are being affected. We hear touching stories in the media about the effects of plastics. A sad example is the 33-foot sperm whale in Spain and a pilot whale in Thailand which were found dead recently. It was later discovered that the cause of death was consuming plastic bags. The pilot whale had mistaken 17 pounds of plastic bags for food and later found swimming abnormally before dying.
The plastic problem is perhaps understated
About 8 million tons of plastic is thrown into oceans annually. This is the core cause of this emerging trouble.
It is high time we all realized the magnitude of this emerging environmental challenge and undertake necessary steps to prevent it.
According to the World Counts, over 160,000 plastic bags are made every second but less than a percent are recycled.
Acknowledging this great global issue, an outstanding innovative idea has been made into reality for a positive change. A substitute of plastic bags or poly bags has been reinvented from Jute which looks exactly like a poly bag but does not possess any negative environmental influence. It took one Bangladeshi scientist a Dr. Mubarak Ahmad Khan, six years of painstaking work to come that far. The innovation comes to life by separating cellulose from the jute fibre (named Jute Polymer to create the Sonali Bag. This disruptive innovation brings renewed hope of finding alternatives of plastic bags that are both bio-degradable and eco-friendly.
Apart from being lightweight, it is air and water resistant, does not sponge up into water and most importantly, it will bio-degrade once buried within three to four months.
There have been a lot of inventions made for substituting poly bags but not a single one could sustain in the market for valorization. Perhaps a major challenge is making the new innovation affordable enough to reach people. Poly bags are the cheapest alternative and it takes a lot of effort and cost to produce an eco-friendly product. Even the jute polymer is one and a half times expensive than poly bags. However, providing incentives like a waiver of taxes on eco-friendly products like the jute polymer and reinforcing bans on single-use plastics can help scale up production and drive down production costs through economies of scale.
Considering it to be an eco-friendly approach of conserving the environment, many countries have already shown their huge interest in purchasing the new bags. Jute polymer brings hopes of a new era of revitalizing jute.
About the Author
Anika Tasnim Nishat is an undergraduate student studying development studies at the Bangladesh University of Professionals. She is a committee member of the JAAGO Foundation – an organization which works for the betterment of people living below poverty line. She doubles as an intern at Development Innovation Insider an organization which focuses on the grassroots development.
Anika is passionate about capturing beautiful moments through her photography skills. She enjoys travelling around and finds satisfaction in helping people in need.