INDUSTRIAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN BANGLADESH: AN EVALUATION ON POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

Bangladesh is the second largest supplier of knit wear just after China. Knit sector’s
share in national export is 38.99%. On the other hand the county is one of the
most environmentally vulnerable countries within the globe. Considering waste
production of the Composite Garments Industries (CGI), knitting, spinning
and sewing units produce less waste (usually produce material waste) rather than
dyeing units, and dyeing unit produces chemical along with material waste. So
far in term of most harmful element for nature, waste produced by dyeing unit
considers larger than other units of CGI. These liquid industrial waste of CGI
has been one of the visible sources of water, air and soil pollution. Considering
the importance of industrial development, Bangladesh government has adopted
a number of policies such as The Environment Conservation Act, 1995, The
Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 and The Environment Court Act 2002,
so that this sector does not become environmentally harmful for the country.
The research has been conducted on the Composite Garments Industries which
fall under the Red category as per Conservation Rules 1997 mainly to addresses
the gaps in theory and practice of environmental policies related to waste
management of the CGI. The specific objective of the study is - to explore the
present scenario of the implementation of industrial waste management policy in
CGI and to identify the factors influencing the implementation of environmental
conservation policies. The research revealed that despite the existence of policies,
their implementation remains unsatisfactory, for inadequate institutional capacities
both at the government bodies such as the Department of Environment (DoE)
and at the factory levels. Due to lack of willingness on recycling of water setting
up and running of Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP), irregularities in disposing
sludge, lack of eagerness to maintain environment management plan, absence of
self-regulatory system, lack of the use of 3R practice, lack of commitment and coordination
among the stakeholders, tendency of owners and buyers to earn extra
and quick profits, lack of correct National Effluent Quality Standards (NEQS),
absence of policy feedback loop and public-private partnership are mentionable
factors that influencing the implementation of Environmental Conservation policies in CGI. Moreover, existing government policies are more titled towards
top-down model policy implementation which visibly ignores bottom-up or
interactive model. The research addressed that existing policy implementation of
the government is more concerned with command and control. It lacks market
based incentive model.