People are buying their daily groceries in exchange of plastic waste
Hundreds of people deposited plastic waste in St. Martin’s Island ‘s coral island of Cox’s Bazar and bought their daily necessities in exchange for plastic waste.
The island’s men and women of all ages deposited plastic waste in the ‘Plastic waste Exchange Store’ of the Galachipa area’s Marine Park and traded their choices.
With the cooperation of the district administration, the private voluntary organization Bidyanondo Foundation and the tourist police took this initiative to prevent environmental pollution.
Hundreds of men and women from Galachipa, Dakshinpara, Majherpara, and Paschimpara, the island, come and stand in line in front of the shops. Everyone has a used plastic bottle. Some brought bags full of plastic waste. By selling plastic waste, the locals can buy 20 types of products.
Rahima Akhtar, a housewife from the Galachipa area of the island, has deposited a bag of used plastic bottles. Rahima said, “Tourists have been flocking to the island since last November.
Tourists buy bottles of mineral water and throw plastic bottles here and there. We collect those bottles and sell them to the shop.”
Siraj Ullah, a fisherman, said that his two sons collected two sacks of plastic waste from the beach in four to five days. By depositing these, they have collected oil, lentil, and salt from the shop.
St. Maarten’s vast seas of seaweed and colorful corals attract everyone’s attention, but the environment of the adjacent sea area and the islands is constantly deteriorating.
Everywhere, even in seawater, pollution is increasing at an alarming rate due to the dumping of plastic waste. It threatens the environment and sea fish, animals, and plants.
A group of volunteers has taken up a new initiative to reduce plastic pollution on the island of St. Martin. Under this initiative, in collaboration with the district administration, the organization set up a ‘Plastic Exchange Store’ on St. Martin Island.
People can deposit empty containers or bottles of their used plastic products and take daily necessities, including rice, lentil, oil, sugar, and salt. It will meet the local people’s daily needs and reduce environmental pollution.
This ‘Plastic Exchange Store’ is open twice every month. As a result, people can sell their accumulated plastic waste here and buy daily necessities according to their needs.
Md. Jamal Uddin, a Board member of Vidyananda Foundation, said, “The collected plastic waste is taken from here to Dhaka and recycled. With the help of the district administration, volunteers made a large-sized ‘plastic monster’ at Cox’s Bazar beach with a part of the collected used plastic.
By making this monster, Vidyananda Foundation wants to send a message to human society that the rate at which the environment is polluting due to plastic is slowly turning into a monster. Moreover, this monster will later become a threat to humankind.”
Abu Sufian, Additional District Magistrate, said, “The district administration is making continuous efforts to keep St. Martin and other islands and beaches pollution-free. Still, it is impossible to prevent it due to ignorance and negligence.
The district administration has fully supported the novel initiative the Vidyananda Foundation took to create awareness among the common people and involve them. Hopefully, this initiative will protect the environment of the island.”
Vidyananda Foundation is an education-friendly Bangladeshi voluntary organization. To meet the basic needs of orphans and underprivileged children, Vidyananda conducts several regular programs, including food for BDT.1.00, new clothes in winter and Eid, free education program, and medical treatment for BDT.1.00
Courtesy: Green Page (Bangla version)
Translated by Aivee Akther
