Bangladesh summit calls for circular economy for next growth transition

A circular economy involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible

Participants of a summit in Bangladesh have called for efforts to turn the economy into a circular one, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.

The 1st Bangladesh Circular Economy Summit was organised by Bangladesh Apparel Exchange in collaboration with Laudes Foundation and in partnership with P4G in Dhaka on Thursday.

The summit was powered by GIZ, the Embassy of the Netherlands and H&M Group.

The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, where the life cycle of products is extended. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum.

Circularity will be the key for the next growth transition of Bangladesh’s economy, speakers at the summit said.

MP Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s special envoy on environment and climate change, said: ‘’In a traditional economy which is linear, we produce, consume and throw away. It is not sustainable. So, we need to make the shift from linear to circular economy to keep resources in use for as long as possible, and extract and harvest the maximum value from the products whilst in use. For that the business case for circularity has to be win-win for manufacturers and buyers.”

Dhaka North Mayor and apparel sector entrepreneur Atiqul Islam said: ‘‘3R – reduce, recycle and reuse – are the keys to sustainability. Moreover, extended product or producer responsibility as stipulated by the EU is going to be mandatory for apparel producers in Bangladesh. So, the importance of promoting circular fashion in the country cannot be overstated.’’

Dutch Ambassador Anne Van Leeuwen said the Netherlands and Bangladesh have many things in common. One of them is that both the countries are big deltas, thus vulnerable to climate change. “Bangladesh has made tremendous progress in economy and social development indexes. The country has the opportunity to be a leader in circular economy too.’’

Leyla Ertur, head of sustainability at H&M Group, said: ‘’The fashion industry needs to accelerate its transformation towards circularity as the way forward to solve the biggest challenges we face, not only companies but societies in general, such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

“We need to join forces to build a circular fashion ecosystem and Bangladesh is unique as the country with the world’s largest share of pre-consumer textile waste readily available for recycling.

“Bangladesh has a great potential to attract investments from local and foreign investors to scale up the production of high-value recycled fibers from pre-consumer waste. However, we are well-aware the industry needs advancing policy to regulate the waste handling sector in order to move forward in this area.’’

Founder and CEO of Bangladesh Apparel Exchange, Mostafiz Uddin, said: “Bangladesh Circular Economy Summit aims to find out the opportunities for the shift from the linear to circular business model and foster collaborations among the stakeholders to promote circular economy in the country.”

Edimon Ginting, country director of the Asian Development Bank, and Bernd Spanier, deputy head of the European Union delegation, also spoke at the summit.