Under the “Dhaka CALLING” Project which is being implemented by the DSK consortium (DSK, BARCIK, CUP, and inSights) a meeting was arranged at the Secretariat of Bangladesh recently where Mr. Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP and Minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) participated as chief guest and shared his views and concerns on waste management and environment related issues. The participating organizations presented a roadmap and summited a memorandum to the MoEFCC on solid waste management and environmental issues reflected in the Election Manifesto 2024 of Bangladesh Awami League.
Dr. Dibalok Singha, Executive Director, facilitated the discussions. A total of eight members, including four women and four men from USAID, Counterpart International, and marginalized communities, participated in the meeting.
Based on the abovementioned recommendation, Saber Hossain Chowdhury agreed to reduce the use of single-use plastic. He asked the participating organizations for a list of single-use plastics and requested them to provide good alternatives to help reduce their use. Upon receiving data on daily waste generation, he said, “The government is working to convert the country’s waste into resources.”
He expressed interest in replicating Dhaka CALLING project model of the Community-led Waste Management System (CLWMS) nationwide. This model is currently being implemented in four slums in Dhaka. “By collecting waste and producing fertilizer locally through government and private initiatives, we can reduce our reliance on imported fertilizers and save valuable foreign exchange,” he explained.
He said, if we start fertilizer production from waste, we can decrease fertilizer imports. This will conserve a lot of foreign exchange for us. Also, it will reduce the burden of managing a huge amount of waste, and many aspects of it, as well as provide remedies for many issues that relate to public health.
By tapping the PAR team’s expertise, he aims to garner research and recommendations to enact meaningful plastic waste reductions, align stakeholder efforts, and educate the public – setting the stage for impactful action. He calls on the team to bring forward illuminating insights on:
- A list of prevalent single-use plastics and proposing eco-friendly alternatives to phase them out
- Comparing specifications and costs of imported versus domestic compost fertilizers – what are the key differences?
- Boosting inter-ministry and local government coordination, engaging city corporations.
- Launching an awareness campaign targeting cigarette filters as single-use plastics, per COP27 goals.
The participating organizations presented some recommendations to the honorable Minister which include:
- Operationalize existing solid waste management policies and national and international commitments.
- Introduce a national ban on single-use plastics and restrict imports of plastic raw materials.
- Effectively expand the current 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) policy to implement the 4R (Reduce, Reuse, Recovery, and Recycle) roadmap.
- Establish a Solid Waste Management (SWM) Digital Monitoring and Surveillance System.
