A meeting was held today at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with the World Bank regarding the implementation of sustainable plastic management action plan to prevent plastic pollution in the country. Simultaneously discussions were held with Lafarge Holcim regarding the implementation of Geocycle, a modern waste management system. The meeting presided over by Secretary Dr. Farhina Ahmed was attended by Ministry’s Additional Secretary (Climate Change) Md. Moniruzzaman, Additional Secretary (Environment) Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, Additional Secretary (Environmental Pollution Control) Md. Mizanur Rahman, World Bank’s senior environmental expert Yoon Ju Alison Yee, BEL Executive Director Syeda Rizwana Hasan along with senior officials of the Ministry, World Bank and other organizations. In the meeting, proposals were presented on behalf of the World Bank on policies and financing strategies for the implementation of the Sustainable Plastics Management Action Plan. The meeting was also informed that the World Bank is preparing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as part of the implementation of the action plan. BELA Executive Director Syeda Rizwana Hasan spoke on the draft guidelines of EPR on plastics. Kaushik Mukherjee, Head of Lafarge Holcim’s Geocycle Division, presented the Geocycle waste management approach to pollution control. He said, Holcim is implementing the method of burning garbage without any residue in a furnace with a temperature of 80 to 2000 degrees Celsius. He said the geocycle process burns 100 percent of the waste, and because it uses garbage instead of fossil fuels, the process does not produce greenhouse gases. In the President’s speech, Environment Secretary Dr. Farhina Ahmed praised the geocycle system and said that the government will implement this waste management system if it is found to be environmentally friendly and effectively implementable after on-site inspection. He further said that the necessary guidelines for the implementation of sustainable plastic management action plan will be formulated in consultation with all concerned.
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