The enlightening:
Last week in a cubical of one of my collogue; I saw a stack of black garment reusable shopping bag. She asked me to have one and keep track of how many times I reuse that. I should report to my manager on how many times I reuse that bag and my manager will track it. This goes through the hierarchy of management at the Microprocessor design company in Portland Oregon where I work. Every manager asked their direct reports to encourage the adaptation of reusable grocery bags in their daily life. There is a movement going allover USA to cut down polythene shopping bags or grocery bags to improve the quality of environment. In Bangladesh we did this very successfully several years ago.
This black grocery shopping bag that was handed over to me for reuse, is being sold by FredMeyer, is 100% recyclable and reusable. After looking at the tag of the bag, I found out that it was outsourced to China by a California company called “Earthwise” based in Commerce, California USA. This bag is hand washable (not machine washable which is uncommon in USA) and was made of 100% non woven polypropylene.
If you consider the fact that it was not machine washable and it was not natural fiber material; however it is being marketed and corporations are buying this as a statement to show their commitment to the environment. Now imagine this, an entrepreneur in Bangladesh use 100% natural fiber Jute to design a grocery bag that is machine washable and shows a cool statement of being environmentally savvy. This product is obviously a better compare to my black “Earthwise” bag because it is bio degradable, recyclable, reusable and machine washable. This will sell as a slam dunk to every consumer in USA. Then the same entrepreneur posts this product information in as many media outlet as he gets for free, say Internet, a video demo in Youtube.com. He tries to get as much attention as he can including all the Jute agencies to support the product. The possibilities are boundless.
Time for a new project:
“Jute, the golden fiber of Bangladesh” was the most popular essay tested by the both HSC and SSC examiner during eighties. Almost all the students in our generation were exposed to that statement. Although the golden periods of Jute was already started showing decline during our college days; I am sure our generation and the generation before us might have more to say about the glory days of golden fiber. It is almost like RMG (Ready Made Garments), which may be the pride of today’s kids; although RMG is little bit slow now a days and God forbid in a decline. Whenever any optimistic prospect of Jute come in the media or discussion table, I think our generation feels pretty good. They want to turn every stone to see what is underneath of that stone. They look every corner and try to make sense out of it. A tiny bit of prospect on the return of the golden fiber amuse them. As a part of that generation I also feel passionately about the potential of Jute, which may be the fiber of the green fabric of 21st century. This generation is currently the power horse behind our industries as most of them are in mid management in various sectors. I am targeting them as my primary audience for this article.
After Al Gore told the “inconvenient truth” and earned a Noble prize, people are at started to getting aware of sustainability. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate change bringing scientists, engineers as well as civic leaders on board to solve the challenging issues of climate change. The progress is slow but apparently going in the positive direction. Now a days, people in the USA asking for more and more greener options in their everyday life. This year Hybrid car demand rose to 37% ; however, 2% cars in the roads of USA are Hybrid today. Progress in the right direction; but slow. Never before, Greener businesses are booming like today, even in the decline of the economy. For example, look at the reusable shopping bags. Macy’s a major upper mid scale departmental store, which has 800 stores in the metropolitan cities all over USA, introduced reusable shopping bag to its customer at a discount with a substantial subsidy. These bags are now considered to be fashion statements. You are carrying this bag because you are environmentally conscious, social in nature, care for others and a responsible person. It showcases your better humane nature on the go.
Especially, in recent months, when this “green movement” by the west is getting momentum catalyzed by the earth day in April, I see an opportunity for a Jute Project. I do believe that there are new opportunities for Jute goods today for environmentally sustainable economy. There is obviously a demand and market is ready, growth potential is enormous. The product in this case is a shopping bag and the simple specifications of the product are: reusable, recyclable, machine washable, non-toxic, environmentally friendly and biodegradable.
In this project, there are three major milestones to achieve. First and foremost, development of a fabric of the above mentioned specification. Second milestone would be design and manufacture a prototype and the third and most challenging part of the project is to get the attention of the consumer.
Jute Zhamela:
We simply can not ask our government to pull this project. In my personal opinion, our government failed us with Jute. I question the very existence of our Jute research institute. I read articles to revive Jute by genome sequencing. They argued that multimillion dollar Jute genome sequencing could open the doors of better Jute. The knowledge could be used to bio-engineer Jute to bring better features and quality in the breed. However I disagree with the argument of costly genome sequencing is the answer to the Jute revival.
Look at the recent huge shipment of raw Jute to Pakistan. What Pakistan will do with this huge quantity of raw Jute? Obviously they will make a finish product, add value in it and sell it with higher margin. Why can not we do what Pakistan is doing? If we can not make high margin product with our existing Jute and sell it to global market than what are the chances that we would be able to do it with bio-engineered Jute? I believe the answer is somewhere between initiatives that need to be taken by dynamic entrepreneurs. May be one baby steps at a time.
I am sure our national pride Dr Atiq Rahman of UN environment award winner will come forward encouraging such product of national pride. I hope this product is a better alternative of unsustainable polythene bags that is being used all over the world. There are 46,000 floating plastic pieces per square mile of ocean according to a 2006 U.N. study. If Bangladesh can develop such a creative product and do proper marketing, than it not only can revive the golden fiber but also solve a global environmental problem.
Why I believe we can do this project and what is our strength:
Today, Bangladesh has more capability to make a successful finish product of Jute than ever before. We have the mature textile industries that are making fine quality fabrics, including jeans, cottons, mixed fabrics you name it. Some of the factory has onsite small R&D (Research and development facilities), where I assume they experiment or reverse engineer of hip and popular fabrics. They are capable of developing a Jute fabric.
I would like to throw one specific idea to them. To those who are in the textile R&D, start searching for a formula to get Jute as the base of fabric solution. You may try making cool yarn with 90% Jute and 5% cotton and 5% acrylic. You will have a fabric with strength, soft and stretchy.
We have access to the global information system to use for free product advertisement, marketing, virtual office and demo 24/7. Thanks to http://craiglist.org, http://youtube.com, google blog are there to serve you free; where you post your product videos, slides, photos, description and your contact. It is a flat world and global marketplace. If your product add value and cost effective, surly you will get call. Get the benefit of broadband, VOIP, internet technology and flood the information superhighway showing, demonstrating the merits of this unique product.
The next pipeline would be our RMG capability. Using this expertise we would be able to make Jute based finish product. Let us begin with shopping bags. Then, it could expand into product that could be used in landscape development and restoration of environment. Our entrepreneurs at the RMG and Textile industry have a lot to offer; only thing missing is a visionary entrepreneur who can design such a product. Can you do it?
Share my thoughts mostly about Bangladesh and possibility of technology to uplift living standard of mass population. I believe technology has the potential to change life standard of every human being if it implemented right and conducted based on a transperent policy.
