Turning the Tide: Empowering communities through river cleanup and dignified employment
Yas Comez
3 October 2023
We’re very pleased to announce that we have recently started an exciting new partnership with Practical Action, supporting their project which works to provide dignified employment through gathering and recycling floating waste in the Padma River, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is confronted with a significant challenge in managing its waste. The country produces approximately 800,000 tons of plastic waste annually, and the local authorities require additional support to handle this issue. The Padma River, a major waterway running through the nation, has unfortunately become a disposal area and a major route for various types of floating debris – which eventually making its way into the ocean.
The project aims to collect and categorise floating debris in the Padma River, including materials such as plastics, metals, wood, fabric/clothing, and more. These items will be transported to specialized facilities for further processing, value addition, and repurposing. Organic materials will be sent for composting, while plastics will undergo sorting based on their grade. The highest-grade plastics will be immediately repurposed and returned to the market. Lower-grade plastics (typically destined for landfills) will be subjected to a process called pyrolysis. This process involves high-temperature heating in a vacuum, transforming them into high-quality oil, crucial for maintenance in the shipping industry, and black carbon used in manufacturing print cartridges.
This project will impact 2,000 people’s lives by securing stable jobs and incomes, in the municipalities of Faridpur, Satkhira, Magura and Jashore in Bangladesh. Other benefits include cleaner air alongside a cleaner environment for over 1.9 million people, a major reduction in the open burning of plastics that led to emitting carbon in the atmosphere, and a reduction in the open disposal of plastics (and other materials) of up to 70%!
Other donors include DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency), with core support from Practical Action itself. We thank you for your continued interest in our work and will be sure to keep you updated on the project’s development.
