Polythene unfolds an ominous spectre

The seizure of 10 tonnes of banned polythene shopping bags by the Department of Environment (DoE) from a factory of the city's Lalbagh could have received applause if it was part of a regular and purposeful drive. There is not the slightest indication that the production, marketing and use of this environmental hazardous thermoplastic material made from ethylene are banned in this country. It is randomly used all across the country. But immediately after the ban enforced on it on January 2001, such shopping bags almost disappeared. When there was a need for a last push to send the substance into oblivion, the authorities relaxed and allowed it to stage a comeback.
So, one cannot be blamed if one finds an ulterior motive in this isolated drive carried out perhaps in ages. When the poly-bag was making its return to retail shops and kitchen markets, sporadic drives were launched against those shops. Anyone could tell that the exercise was nothing but an eye-wash. As the authorities counted on people's apparently short memory, they started gradually turning a blind to the substance's production, sale and use. This is how banned polythene has come to flood the market once again.
Now a drive once in a blue moon will only be subjected to mere ridicule. The 2001 campaign almost became successful because the target of attack was both the source and the destination. If the DoE or the government is serious about enforcement of the legal instrument Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amended in 2010), it has to go about the business in the same manner. But a more effective step will be to focus on the factories. Stringent enforcement of the law will dry up the source of supply of polythene bags. Then public campaigns will have to be launched in order to discourage people to use the environmentally harmful bags.
However, first of all,  people at the policy level and the DoE authorities must convince themselves that there is need to save the country from the aggression of this substance that is not bio-degradable. The way it is used and thrown almost anywhere and everywhere, chances are that layers of discarded polythene will get accumulated in the drains of towns and cities, open spaces, in crop field, rivers, seas and where not? It opens up a horrible spectre for a small geographic entity like Bangladesh.
Evidently, this country, under threat from climate change, cannot further jeopardise its environment by this substance simply because it is convenient to carry and cheaper compared to other bags. The country's jute industry has been dealt a body blow by this plastic product. Now, here is yet another chance for the authorities to revive the glory of jute. Now that jute's genome sequence has been performed, thanks to late geneticist Maqsudul Alam, ways should be devised to produce thinner gunny bags for shopping.
What about the shopping bags some chain shops are using now for their customers? Some of them are definitely not natural products? But a few of them have very coarse fabric bags. Further experiments with jute should come up with cheaper and thinner textile material for producing shopping bags. The fact is there has to be a most viable alternative to polythene bags for its total banishment from Bangladesh.