TDS Desk:

Plastic products producers on Monday said banning single-use plastic without creating alternative products will affect export, trade, packaging industries and medicine sectors.

They expressed concern saying that a large number of workers in this sector will become unemployed if the government restricts the use of 17 single-use plastic products, reports UNB.

Business leaders and plastic sector stockholders raised their concerns at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU).

They said around 1.3 million (13 lakh) small traders are involved in selling plastic goods in the country that generate around Tk 400 billion (40,000 crore) as government revenue.

The plastic traders placed an 11-point demand to the government to protect the environment and alongside recycling of plastic products like Japan.

Shamim Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Plastic Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Abu Motaleb, president of Bangladesh Plastic Packaging and Roll Manufacturing Owners Association, among others, spoke at the press conference.

The government categorised 17 hazardous ‘single-use plastics’ to phase those out from the environment.

Cigarette filters, fast food wrap, plastic bottles and its cap, straw, stirrer, one-time utensils, cutlery (e.g. cups, plates, trays, spoons, forks), plastic sticks, styrofoam food packaging e.g biryani packet etc, thin plastic films on fast food packaging plastic invitation card and melamine foam sponges-used for household cleaning are among the 17 products, according to a circular of August 2024, issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.