By Rafiqul Islam
DHAKA, July 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As countriesaround the world try to cut down on throw-away plastic shoppingbags, Bangladesh is hoping to cash in on an alternative:plastic-like bags made from jute, the plant fibre used toproduce burlap bags.
Bangladesh is the world's second biggest producer of juteafter India, though the so-called "golden fibre" - named for itscolour and its once-high price - has lost its sheen as demandhas fallen.
Now, however, a Bangladeshi scientist has found a way toturn the fibre into low-cost biodegradable cellulose sheets thatcan be made into greener throw-away bags that look and feel muchlike plastic ones.
"The physical properties are quite similar," said MubarakAhmad Khan, a scientific adviser to the state-run BangladeshJute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and leader of the team thatdeveloped the new 'sonali' - the Bengali word for golden - bags.
He said the sacks are biodegradable after three monthsburied in soil, and can also be recycled.
Bangladesh is now producing 2,000 of the bags a day on anexperimental basis, but plans to scale up commercial productionafter signing an agreement last October with the British arm ofa Japanese green packaging firm.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in March urged thoseworking on the project "to help expedite the wider usage of thegolden bags” for both economic and environmental gains.
In April, the government approved about $900,000 in fundingfrom Bangladesh's own climate change trust fund to help pave theway for large-scale production of the bags.
“Once the project is in full swing, we hope to be able toproduce the sonali bag commercially within six months,” MamnurRashid, the general manager of the BJMC, told the ThomsonReuters Foundation.
BIG DEMAND
Bangladesh was one of the first countries to ban the use ofplastic and polythene bags, in 2002, in an effort to stop themcollecting in waterways and on land - though the ban has hadlittle success.
Today more than 60 countries - from China to France - haveoutlawed the bags in at least some regions or cities, Khan said.
As the bans widen, more than 100 Bangladeshi andinternational firms are looking into using the new jute-basedshopping sacks, Khan said.
“Every day I am receiving emails or phone calls from buyersfrom different countries," he said, including Britain,Australia, the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan and France.
The bag is likely to have "huge demand around the world,"said Sabuj Hossain, director of Dhaka-based export firm EcoBangla Jute Limited.
He said his company hopes eventually to export 10 million ofthe bags each month.
Commercial production is expected to start near the end ofthe year, said Rashid of the BJMC.
Khan said that if all the jute produced in Bangladesh wentto make the sacks, the country was still likely to be able tomeet just a third of expected demand.
While Bangladesh's own plastic bag ban is now almost twodecades old, million of the bags are still used each year in theSouth Asian country because of a lack of available alternativesand limited enforcement, officials said.
About 410 million polythene bags are used in the capitalDhaka each month, the government estimates, and in somewaterways such as the Buriganga River a three-metre-deep layerof discarded bags has built up.
The new bags should help ease the problem, said Quazi SarwarImtiaz Hashmi, a former deputy director general of theDepartment of Environment.
“As jute polymer bags are totally biodegradable anddecomposable, it will help check pollution," he said.(Reporting by Rafiqul Islam ; editing by Laurie Goering :(Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitablearm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climatechange, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and propertyrights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate)