The coral reef island, St Martin’s, is a major tourist attraction in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, being a tourist attraction comes with substantial plastic waste every day. Wherever you go on the island, you will find plastic bottles, polythene bags and more. To clean up St Martin’s Island and to rid it of the plastic waste menace, Bidyanondo Foundation has opened a “Plastic Exchange Store”.

Through the store, Bidyanondo is offering rice, pulses and other essential items in exchange of plastic waste on St Martin’s Island.

“We are struggling to collect all the plastic waste from St Martin’s Island with 10-20 volunteers. Hence, this innovative initiative to engage people from all walks of life in this clean-up effort,” Bidyanondo wrote on its verified Facebook page today.

In exchange of 1 kg of plastic waste, one will get 1 kg of rice, while 3 kg of plastic gets 1 kg of lentils, it added.

Bidyanondo also thanked Cox’s Bazar district administration for supporting, what it called, “this crazy” initiative.