Plastic waste lying in 58 places in 24 districts of Bangladesh was cleaned at the initiatives taken by Pran-RFL Group, the country's leading business conglomerate, in order to create awareness among the common people about environmental protection.
Pran-RFL Group has launched the "Let's Save the Planet" campaign as part of its corporate social responsibility to protect the environment, reads a press release.
As part of the campaign, employees of the Pran-RFL group, as well as people from various classes and professions participated in the nationwide cleanliness drive.
Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Atiqul Islam inaugurated the "Let's Save the Planet" campaign at the capital's Hatirjheel Amphitheater on Friday.
In the event, 12 people involved in the plastic collection were honoured.
After the opening ceremony, various types of plastic waste were cleaned simultaneously in 58 places in 24 districts of the country including Dhaka, Gazipur, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Barisal, Habiganj, Narayanganj, Narsingdi and Cox's Bazar.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony as chief guest, Atiqul Islam said: “We have to think about the environment apart from developing urban areas and making the country beautiful. We ourselves are responsible for destroying the environment. Now Dhaka city has become a heat island.”
The Mayor thanked Pran-RFL Group for running recycling activities to a large extent to prevent environmental pollution. Managing Director of Pran Group Eleash Mridha said: “Pran-RFL Group is always committed to ensuring the protection of the environment. However, the involvement of the common people is a must to ensure maximum protection of the environment.”
“For this reason, we have taken up the "Let's Save the Planet" campaign. Under the campaign, there will be various public awareness programs for people about plastic management. As a part of this, today we have taken the initiative to remove various types of plastic waste in 58 places in 24 districts of the country. Such programs will continue in the future.”
Managing Director of RFL Group RN Paul said that plastic is one of the elements of environmental pollution as the raw material of plastic is not biodegradable.
However, if proper management is ensured, it is possible to protect the environment from pollution to a large extent. People have the scope to play a vital role in the proper management of plastic and recycling. It is possible to reduce environmental pollution to a large extent if plastic waste can be recycled through proper management.
Kamruzzaman Kamal, marketing director of Pran-RFL Group and Kamrul Hasan, executive director of TEL Plastics spoke on the occasion.
Pran-RFL has been involved with plastic product recycling activities since 2012. The group has so far invested around Tk350 crore in plastic recycling.
Every year, about 32,000 tons of plastics, including single-use plastics, are recycled to make more than 100 products, which, if imported as raw materials, would have a financial value of more than Tk450 crore.
