Written by Mohammad Nazimuzzaman of ESDO
PRESS RELEASE, WORLD CLEAN-UP DAY 2018
Dhanmondi, Dhaka- 19 th September 2018
Plastic pollution in city water bodies has been creating havoc to our life and nature. Within
one and half an hour, around 100 KG single use-plastic wastes were collected from
Dhanmondi lake area in Dhaka. Fifty volunteers from Shaheed Bir Uttam Lt. Anwar Girls
College and Dhanmondi Govt Girls High School, students from Daffodil International
University and ESDO team members did the drive in the occasion of “World Cleanup Day”
and BFFP brand audit on September 16, Sunday. Environment and Social Development
Organization-ESDO initiated this movement to create public awareness and knocking the
extended producer’s responsibility.
After the brand audit and cleanup activities, 97.5 kg single use plastic packaging and sachets
were collected.On the basis of product types, it was found that for Household product, Food
product, Personal care product and for other mixed items, the total weight of plastics were
40.31 kg, 32.806 kg, 0.108 kg and 23.83 kg respectively. Sample were collected for 2 hours
covering 1 km area of Dhanmondi lake. So for the whole day, if the sample collection is for 8
hours, from the estimation it could be said that for whole Dhanmondi lake that is 4.34 km 2 in
size, the total amount of plastic waste will be approximately 50,543.4 kg in a month. Most of
the non-recyclable plastic goes into the lake which creates pollution into the water bodies and
severly affecting aquatic life.
From the Brand Audit, 120 brands of 82 producers were identified, which includes
corporations like PRAN-RFL, Abul Monem Ltd., Bombay Sweets Company, Nomad Foods
Limited, Dhaka Ice cream International Limited, Nestle, Unilever, Square, Meridian Group,.
and Perfetti Van Melle Bangladesh Pvt Ltd.
In the opening of the cleaning and auditing drive, former Secretary and ESDO Chairperson
Syed Marghub Murshed urged the government to take necessary steps to protect our water
bodies from plastic and micro plastic pollution. He said, “we are in a global pollution area, so
we need collective efforts to tackle this situation. Manufacturers cannot green wash their role
of plastic pollution crisis”, he added.
The Brand Audit tool is designed by Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) Global movement.
Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) is the member of this Break
Free From Plastic movement. This Brand Audit is mainly done to create awareness among
the public and also for the manufacturers who are using single uses plastics in their products
packaging and also to motivate them for using the alternatives of it.
For more information, please visit - www.esdo.org
Contact Information:
Mohammad Nazimuzzaman
Program Associate (Communication)
ESDO.
Mobile: 01714737913 (For Emergency)
Email: nazimuzzaman@esdo.org
