From poly bags to progress: redefining waste in Bangladesh

In Barisal, Bangladesh, plastic used to clog canals; it would gather on roadsides and drift into the river. This was before Nazmun Naher Rina, a housewife, decide to turn this unwelcomed tide into a business opportunity: with support from UNIDO’s “Integrated Approach Towards Sustainable Plastics Use and Marine Litter Prevention in Bangladesh” project, which was funded by the Government of Norway and implemented with the Department of Environment (DoE), Rina received technical assistance, business mentoring, and machinery upgrades to safely recycle the lowest-grade plastics such as poly bags, wrappers, and snack packets.

“People used to laugh,” she remembers. “They said, ‘You want to recycle poly bags? That’s garbage work. You’re a woman. You’ll never manage a factory.’”

Now, her factory transforms up to 1.2 tons of plastic waste per day into thick, durable sheets used for waterproofing, low-cost roofing, and construction barriers. However, the heartbeat of Rina’s factory is not its machines, but the people behind them, including many women who once worked in the shadows of the informal waste economy — unprotected, unrecognized, and underpaid. Shirin, one of the women now supplying plastic to Rina’s facility, remembers what it was like before.

“We used to go door to door, digging through trash with our bare hands. Nobody looked at us. We were just part of the garbage,” she says. “Now, I sell sorted plastics directly to Apa [Rina]. She treats us with respect. She asks how our kids are doing.”

With UNIDO’s support, over 150 informal waste workers, half of them women, have been trained in safe sorting, protective handling, and business skills. Many are now part of organized networks or cooperatives, negotiating fairer prices and building steady livelihoods. The factory is just one part of a larger circular ecosystem being piloted in Barisal: UNIDO’s project connected businesses with the city’s plastic waste flows to create a more structured and inclusive value chain. It is designed not only to reduce marine litter and landfill pressure but to build local green enterprises led by women.

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