LGRD minister inaugurates 'Material Recovery Facility' in Sylhet

A Material Recovery Facility for municipal solid waste and plastic waste segregation has been installed in Sylhet at a cost of Tk 15 crore 30 lac for sustainable management of plastic waste of the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC).

The plant was inaugurated today at Sylhet's Lalmatia Dumping Ground by the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives of the People's Republic of Bangladesh Md. Tajul Islam, MP.

Dr. A K Abdul Momen, MP, Sylhet 1, Habibur Rahman Habib, MP, Sylhet-3, Muhammad Ibrahim, Local Government Division Secretary, Anwaruzzaman Chowdhury, Mayor, SCC, Mohammad Iqbal Chowdhury, CEO, LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited were present along with other officials of both the organizations.

This is the first and one of its kind municipal solid waste and plastic waste segregation plant in the country which has been installed through a joint initiative of Sylhet City Corporation and LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited. Automatic segregation of non-biodegradable plastic products will be possible through this plant which are harmful to the environment. SCC hopes that Sylhet city will be freed from municipal solid waste and plastic waste due to the launch of this plant.

During the chief guest's speech at the event, the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives thanked SCC and LafargeHolcim and said, "Sustainable management of plastic waste is our enduring challenge. The whole world has taken various sustainable measures to meet this challenge. Bangladesh government is also working to reduce plastic pollution by taking various short and long term projects at the government level. Today I applaud both LafargeHolcim and Sylhet City Corporation for their initiative."

The Mayor of Sylhet City Corporation said, "One of my goals is to transform Sylhet City into a plastic free city. We are working with LafargeHolcim for this purpose. My request to the people of Sylhet is to be aware and reduce the use of plastic products. Don't harm the environment by throwing plastic products anywhere. With your help, we want to become the first plastic waste free city in the country."

The Chief Executive Officer of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh mentioning the day as a milestone said, "LafargeHolcim is co-processing different types of hazardous and non-hazardous products in a sustainable manner in the only integrated cement plant of the country. We are going to start co-processing Sylhet City Corporation's plastic wastes using our facility. Earlier we worked together in the experimental phase. We will encourage the surrounding municipalities of Sylhet City Corporation to use this facility in future."

"According to a study, by 2025, the total amount of waste in Bangladesh will be 20 million tons per year. Even three decades ago, its quantity was only 5 million tons. Currently, the amount of waste is doubling every ten years. It is a big challenge for our country. A major portion of this waste is plastic, which is extremely harmful to the environment. According to a report of 2021, a person in Bangladesh uses 9 kg of plastic products every year. If the population of 17 crore is calculated, the total amount of plastic products used is more than 16 lakh tons which is returned to the environment. The only way to get rid of this is to manage these plastic products in a sustainable way." He added.

Finally the Chief Executive of LafargeHolcim Bangladesh drew the Minister's attention to the formulation and implementation of a waste management policy/law.

LafargeHolcim Bangladesh Limited has an integrated cement plant at Chhatak, where clinker is produced. An integrated cement plant with clinker manufacturing facility has opportunity of sustainable waste management. Geocycle is one such sustainable solution. Holcim Group provides this service in more than 50 countries worldwide. The official journey of Geocycle in Bangladesh started in 2017. Currently around 1 lakh tons of waste per year can be managed sustainably in the Geocycle plant. LafargeHolcim is going to increase its capacity to 300,000 tons per annum in the future.