Environmental activists and experts demanded an international response to prevent the spread of toxic chemicals in plastic pallets. Environment and Social Development Organization-ESDO arranged a media briefing both physically and virtually on 13th January 2022 to address the problem of harmful chemicals found in both beach and recycled pallets.

Media people from different newspapers and online news portals attended the event and discussed this issue. ESDO’s Secretary-General, Dr. Shahriar Hossain one of the leaders of the pellet study shared his insights in this event. ESDO’s Executive Director, Siddika Sultana also gave her expert opinion addressing the seriousness of the problem of the toxic chemicals in plastic.

Recently IPEN collaborated with International Pellet Watch (IPW) and its NGO partners in 35 countries including Bangladesh investigated the extent of the problem relating to toxic chemicals’ presence in spilt or lost pre-production plastic pellets found on beaches, and recycled plastic pellets purchased from recycling facilities around the world to get a global picture of the situation. With the results from this study IPEN published a global report titled “Plastic’s Toxic Chemical Problem: A Growing Public Health Crisis”. To address this issue and notify the media about the problem of the toxic chemicals in plastic, ESDO held a briefing with the media.