Some 1,92,104 tonnes of sachets, popularly known as mimipacks, are generated in the country annually, according to a study report revealed on Saturday.

Environment and Social Development Organisation conducted the study titled ‘Plastic sachet: small packet with huge environmental destruction’ between June 2021 and May 2022.

The study found that Bangladesh produced about 1.06 million tonnes of single-use plastic during the period.

The report was prepared by interviewing 2,375 consumers in Dhaka, Rangpur and Cox’s Bazar between June, 2021 and May, 2022, according to the officials who unveiled the report at the organisation’s office in the capital.

‘Sachets are not recyclable. They end up in the nature and possibly returns to human food chain and cause serious health hazards,’ said Shahriar Hossain, secretary general of the Environment and Social Development Organisation.

Sachet is a single-use plastic as it contains harmful chemicals and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and chromium which return to human body through food chain and cause cancerous diseases, he said.

The chemicals can harm lung, create headache and invite reproductive illness, he added.

Department of Environment director (Monitoring and Enforcement) Mohammad Masud Hassan Patwary told New Age that they used to conduct drives against banned plastic but not against mimipacks or any single-use plastic.

He said that the environment department was preparing a guideline to control the use of single-use plastic which would incorporate the sachets.

According to the study, sachets containing food items account for 40 per cent of the total sachets generated in the country, followed by cosmetic 24 per cent, medicine 8 per cent, drink, house-cleaning products, cooking ingredient and others 7 per cent each.

During the survey, 69 per cent people said that they bought shampoo in sachets while 50 per cent mentioned saline pack bought in sachets, 43 per cent sachets tomato sauce, 35 per cent cooking ingredient and instant coffee packs respectively, 30 per cent instant drinking powder, 29 per cent toothpaste and 7 per cent biscuits, cakes, etc.

‘Packet is small in size but it is very harmful, observed Shahriar Hossain.

ESDO former secretary and chairperson Syed Marghub Murshed said that plastic was a byproduct of petroleum which would not be in use when there would be a shift towards renewable energy.

‘But the harmful impact of plastic will remain in the environment for a long time,’ he said, adding that the government should look into the issue as the neighbouring India had already banned the single-use plastic from July 1.

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