Cox's Bazar's Sugandha beach hosts a different arrangement—'Plastic Exchange Store' and Seagull Point's 'Plastic Exchange Market'. By depositing plastic bottles in these shops, essential food items including rice, dal, eggs, soybean oil and gifts like T-shirts are handed over to tourists and locals. Cox's Bazar district administration and Vidyananda Foundation are running this four-month long initiative, which has already received a huge response.

Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Salahuddin officially inaugurated this on Thursday. Deputy Director of Cox's Bazar Environment Department was present at the opening ceremony of this special initiative for environmental protection. Zamir Uddin and District Administration Tourism Branch Executive Magistrate. Tanvir Hossain.

Deputy Commissioner Salahuddin said, 'Cox's Bazar beach is visited by millions of tourists every year. But many of them leave plastic bottles and other garbage, which is very harmful to the beach and marine environment.'

He also pointed out that increasing plastic pollution has become a threat to marine life. About 80% of sea water is now affected by micro and nano plastic pollution.

The concerned said that it was possible to collect more than 4 metric tons of plastic on the first day. Through this program, the organizers hope to collect at least 100 metric tons of plastic, which will play a unique role in protecting the environment. There are also plans to build a sculpture on the beach out of collected plastic, which will raise environmental awareness among locals and tourists.

This initiative is not only helping the environment but also helping the local poor people.

Sanwara Begum works at Seagull Point, she deposited 4 kg of plastic and got one liter of soybean oil in exchange. Similarly, many other locals have managed to collect rice, dal, flour. Where the market price of one kg of plastic is Tk 20-30, in this initiative they are getting products worth around Tk 50-80.

Nazrul Islam from Dhaka Mirpur said, 'It is a new experience to come to the beach and get gifts like t-shirts by depositing plastic. It's fun for us as well as helping to keep the beach environment clean.'

Local initiatives to solve international problems

Board member of Vidyananda Foundation. Jamal Uddin highlighted the relevance of this initiative, 'Plastic pollution has become a critical problem worldwide in the 21st century. Such initiatives can play an important role in protecting our nature.'

The organizers plan to set up three more temporary booths at various locations in Cox's Bazar and St. Martin's over the next four months. Locals and tourists can collect necessary materials by depositing plastic at these booths. Organizers hope that this initiative will make Cox's Bazar and St. Martin a model plastic-free area and will play an important role in protecting a sustainable environment in the long run.