Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

Policy support must for compliant plastic recycling

Published : Thursday, 28 November, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 657
Ferdaus Ara Begum
With global apparel buyers increasingly emphasizing sustainable practices in raw material sourcing and waste management, Bangladesh must align its industry practices to meet these evolving demands.  About 45-50% of our RMG and Textile exports are destined to EU, in order to sustain the market Bangladesh needs a transition in the textile sector for  resource efficiencies through  recycling in a compliant manner. Bangladesh is the 2nd largest cotton-based RMG exporter to the world,  and knitwear is the largest contributor to national export earnings. Export to EU increased   to USD 21.64 billion in 2023-24. Demand for synthetic fibre -based clothing  have been increasing now  in which Bangladesh is behind than the global partners. 

Global fashion trends are moving towards circularity and using recycled materials. Demand for MMF (synthetic & cellulosic fibres) is increasing due to its benefits of wrinkle remittance, durability, lower environmental impact and low land requirement. Cotton Apparel exports grew by approximately 72.4% from 2005 to 2021.By 2021 Cotton Apparel exports increased to $219 Billion, while MMF based apparel exports more than doubled to $271 Billion. Presently MMF accounts for over 70% of the global apparel market.Bangladesh exports of cotton apparel is 70.8%, while 21.8% are non-cotton and the remaining are silk, wool and blended apparel.  Raw materials aremostly imported of which 25% are manmade fibermainly from China, Indonesia and India.

Bangladesh has a large presence of plastic industries, the number is about 5030,  mostly SMEs. The sector employs around 1.5 million people with 20% growth rate. The market size of this sector is USD 4 billion, only deemed export is USD 900 million (2022-23) with actual export the export amount is more than one billion USD. The plastic sector   roughly  generates a staggering 821,250 tonsof  waste annually, of which only 293,825 tons or 36% are recycled, while leakage is about 25% and remaining are landfilled. However, as per concerned stakeholders of the sector, 100% of the plastic waste is now recycled except single used plastics.  Recycling is mostly being accomplished informally. 

Waste-pickers, commonly known as tokai plays the main role in that respect.   The waste pickers dump the wastages to the small aggregators, large aggregators collect wastages from small aggregators and those who have establishments with shredder machines, shred these plastic bottles and as a pet flakes export to different destination. These Pet Flakes have demand in India, China, Korea and some other countries. From the statistics from Export Promotion Bureau, it is seen that in 2022-23, export of Pet Flakes is about USD 30.22 million. The sector enjoy cash incentives at  6%. However, they are in a problem of having  certification from Department of Environment and thus cannot qualify for  institutional financing from banks and financial institutions. The number of small pet flakes exporters is increasing, but they are facing an acute shortage of raw materials. 

Presently some 7-8 Industries have established their units to produce polyester staple fiber (PSF) industry. Raw materials for them are plastic waste, however they are running shortage of quality feedstock and are afraid of increasing production to meet growing need. Some large industries are waiting for production to start, and in the pipeline (Debnoir, Mumanu etc).  Import of plastic waste is not allowed in the country considering the environmental hazard. Similar is the case for textile waste imports, it is also not allowed to import. Entrepreneurs are of different opinions in regard to allow import of waste, some in favour of  allowing import of plastic waste provided there must be a specific zone to recycle the waste, on the other hand some believe it will be shocking for country like Bangladesh, alternatively rather pet flakes can be imported for using as a raw material for large synthetic fibre manufacturers. However, local pet flakes exporters who are small  but contributing to export and created employment will be in uneven competition then.Only, proper policy support can resolve these issues, required standard and guideline need to be framed so that small entrepreneurs can cope up with the new situation gradually,will ultimately help  to avoid livelihood and employment  risks in the country.

Bangladesh Pet Flakes Manufacturer and Exporters  Association(BPFMEA)revealed that the scrap industry in Bangladesh is one  the largest employing over 1 million people. The industry is grappling with several problems like lack of raw materials, no support from the govt and NGOs and emphasized the need of subsidizing this sector citing the example of India, Pakistan and Vietnam,where several facilities  are extended, ensures funding, commercial banks always favor the large industries ignoring the SMEs, SMEs do not  have  guarantor and incapable to provide collateral. 

Global Plastic Treaty being negotiated by around 175 countries to end plastic pollution at every stage of  its  lifecycle, from manufacturing to disposal.The Treaty is tohelp interested countries find a way to reduce and then stop the harm from plastic pollution. Each country can use the Global Plastics Treaty to support plastics reduction efforts best suited to their needs. The Treatywill create a standard global framework that every country can work through, so efforts are coordinated and effective.Toxic plastic chemicals are leaching out of everyday products. Children,through the food they eat, the water they drink and the toys they play with, can inhale these hazardous chemicals. There are financing mechanism, Bangladesh needs to rise to the occasion to be a part of the treaty and prepare a national action plan which will have financial management plan to address this huge issue. 

Bangladesh needs an effective circularity policywhich will give proper directives to align Bangladesh recycling standard toadhere to the need of  EU Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan  which promote sustainable textiles.   With the presence of a large plastic sector, Bangladesh has potential to capture more market share of global high value-added garment items, high value-added products such as Synthetic Staple Fibre (SSF) which can be used in the local spinning mills for manufacturing fibre. Production cost of plastic products from recycled resin is significantly lower than from virgin resins, so energetic entrepreneurs can extend investment in these sectors if proper policy support is there. By promoting recycling industries we will be able to take care of the environmenton the one hand, on the other address environment pollution eventually for achieving  of SDGs.

Lack of established supply chain and infrastructure, inconsistent feedstock quality due to informality, affordability of small pet flakes manufacturers are some of the challenges. High costs of recycling machinery, limited access to circular financing, over and above limited R&D have been identified as the main challenges.

Two fronts' policies we will have to be initiated, while we need to update and enact some new policies, such as Extended Producers Responsibilities are discussed several time but not yet finalized, tax policies, tax holidays, utility and infrastructural support for the businesses. On the other hand Bangladesh need to improve assessment of EU policies which is our main market and improve our consultation process to increase awareness among businesses. To build capacity for digital product passport for textile upstream and downstream there is an extensive need for improving the data management of the total value chain process. Bangladesh has been branded as one of the main textile power house, we will need to work together engage our collective efforts to sustain this branding.

The writer is Chief Executive Officer, 
Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD)



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