Lower income people of the Gazipur City Corporation are now in a festive mood as they are busy collecting GCC election campaign posters to sell to different waste paper traders.
After a daylong visit on Sunday, it was seen that street people and children, most of whom belong to floating families, were collecting posters and election campaign materials with hopes of selling them and making money.
Gazipur city, which was shrouded with hundreds of posters during the election campaign period, has become a bit freer than before due to these activities.
Seven mayoral, 455 councillor and 128 reserved seat candidates had pasted more than 8m plastic covered posters on roads, streets, corners and intersections as part of their election campaigns.
Posters and polythene were sold separately with posters being sold on basis of weight and plastic covers sold on a varying basis.
“So far, I have collected 14kgs of posters and received Tk168. I plan to collect more posters and sell them to the shops,” Faizullah Mia, an 11 year old child told the Dhaka Tribune on Sunday.
“If you visit the big waste paper shops, you would find big dealers who have made syndicates over this business,” Faizullah told the correspondent.
Jamir Uddin Mia, owner at a waste paper shop at BIDC Road, said: “We collect polythene papers and posters separately, as clients of these waste papers are different.”
“Papers are being collected with Tk10-12 per kilogram, while rate of polythene paper that covers the posters varies considering the quality of the polythene,” he informed.
When asked why they were collecting polythene, he said: “In Gazipur, there are many NGOs and businesses who engage in recycling. Polythene is sold in big lots and is recycled to make other things.”
Up until the filing of this report, people were seen collecting posters at different areas including Shib Bari bus stand, Chandana, in front of Najimuddin College and Nagar Bhaban.
