I have written a lot about plastic on this blog: how it is harming our environment and what we might do to get free of it. In those posts I mentioned biodegradable plastic and the Sonali bag as alternatives, and many of you asked about the Sonali bag afterwards. Where can I buy one, how much does it cost, how well does it hold up? I knew very little about it at the time, so I could not give anyone a hopeful answer. Today I would like to make up for that.
GNOBB has been organising a series of seminars to mark fifty years of Bangladesh, and on 26 June 2021 one of them was about the Sonali bag. The speaker was Dr Mobarak Ahmad Khan sir, the inventor of the bag himself. Hearing its history from him was a joy, and every question I had been carrying around got answered. I am grateful to the organisers, because without this seminar a lot of it would have stayed unknown to me. This post is mainly for those who could not attend, so that they can learn a little of it too.
The virtues of plastic are its vices
Before talking about the Sonali bag I have to say a few words about plastic. Plastic resists water, heat and insects; it does not melt, rot or wear out, and it can be used year after year without trouble. Those qualities are exactly why it is everywhere and woven into every part of our lives. Sadly, the same qualities are what is pushing our environment out of balance. Look at the soil, look at the water, and plastic is there, because in nature it never breaks down. If things go on this way, the day may not be far off when plastic makes the earth unfit to live on.
In the hope of escaping that indestructibility, scientists developed biodegradable plastic. It looks and works like plastic, but buried in the ground it eventually mixes back into the soil like anything else. Still, biodegradable plastic is another version of plastic, so some of plastic’s harmful sides stay with it.
Why jute
Dr Mobarak Ahmad Khan sir wanted to start from something entirely new and make a bag that could replace plastic in both look and use. First came all sorts of ideas, then came the way. What if the bag were made from the perishable material all around us? Plants hold starch and cellulose in the form of long chains, and it was cellulose he had in mind.
Taking cellulose from a tree trunk is not practical, though, because a trunk takes around fifteen years to grow. So he chose jute. Jute fibre is 65 to 70 percent cellulose, far more than most other plants, and the fibre is ready to use within two to four months. On top of that, jute is easy to find in our country, which brings the cost of raw material right down. From that idea, sir and his colleagues began work on the Sonali bag with the support of the government, and it has since been produced successfully on a limited scale.
What makes the Sonali bag special
The Sonali bag is as light and thin as plastic, carries more weight than plastic, and merges back into the environment with ease. Buried in the soil, a Sonali bag disappears completely within 120 days, with no trace left behind. Better still, if it is burnt it does not melt the way plastic does; it turns to ash like paper. Left in water for some days, it breaks down there too. In other words, using Sonali bags would greatly reduce the harm we do to the environment. It is a major invention from Bangladesh and a big achievement for the country. Sir said it can contribute to six or seven of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, which is remarkable.
So why is it not in the shops
By now you may be thinking: we have been hearing about the Sonali bag for a year or so, and if it is this useful, why can we still not buy it in the market? At the end of the seminar, whoever got the chance to ask a question asked some version of this one. Sir answered in the plainest of terms.
He has only invented the bag and produced it on a limited scale, he said. He spoke of making a hundred thousand bags, but by no stretch can that be called commercial production. “I am a scientist,” he said. “I have shown you the way to make it. Producing it commercially is not something I can do.” Then he added, with a smile, that if he had the money he might not have said no.
Out came many of the problems he had faced along the way as well. The biggest was the machine. The equipment needed to make the Sonali bag was quoted at 25 crore taka. With his foresight and a good deal of inventiveness, sir pieced together a machine of his own from various parts, and the cost came down to lakhs instead. Had he not managed that, the Sonali bag might never have been invented at all.
The answer that stopped me
In any seminar, the question and answer session gives you far more than the presentation itself, which is why I listen even more carefully then. I mention this because of one question and the answer sir gave. Why, someone asked, has no step been taken yet to produce the bag commercially? A public or private initiative could start it; the initial cost would be only three or four crore taka, not a large sum for a factory owner. And why have environmentally conscious countries abroad not picked it up and started production by now? Sir’s reply left me a little stunned.
The Sonali bag is still very new, he said, so nobody will easily take the risk of producing it commercially. The machine he is using can make perhaps 300 to 400 bags a day, which will not do for commercial production; it needs more changes and new planning, which is beyond him alone. Then there is the price. Because of the production cost, a Sonali bag costs a little more than plastic, and whether ordinary people will pay more for it in place of plastic is something to think about.
Besides, plastic is an enormous business built up over many years, and a new product does not find its place in a market that big and that old as easily as we imagine. Many things are tied up in it. Still, as awareness of the environment grows, commercial production may begin one day, and that day may not be far off.
Where to buy one now
The last word, though, was a ray of hope. We can buy Sonali bags right now if we want to. At the time of writing, they are available at the building beside the Bangladesh Jute Research Institute near Farmgate. Perhaps small efforts by a few environmentally conscious people like you and me will add up to a big change one day. I will end with the slogan: use as little plastic as we can, and keep our environment free of pollution.
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