Situation: Since Bangladesh is a low-lying country, climate change and environmental degradation cause major problems such as the shrinkage of agricultural land. There are currently over 4 million landless farmers due to rising water levels and floods. On the other hand, the rivers in the nation carry 73,000 tons of plastic waste every day. Harming both aquatic life and negatively affecting global warming. MGI, a conglomerate that has products that contribute to plastic pollution, felt it was its responsibility to help change this situation.

Brief: As a conglomerate, MGI has a large plastic footprint and Bangladesh is a country that already suffers from environmental inequality. Come up with a project which can potentially improve this scenario.

Objectives: Help restore livelihoods to climate refugees/landless farmers.

Decrease plastic pollution across the water bodies of Bangladesh.

Increase sustainability efforts for MGI.

After two years of research, we invented a new farming process that uses plastic waste as a resource. MGI presents Plastic Farming, an initiative to turn plastic waste into floating farms.

To spread the project, we partnered up with Bidyanondo, a voluntary organization that brought the landless farmers together, and the local government’s agriculture officers who taught them the process of Plastic Farming.

Process: Together, they taught farmers how to begin plastic farming; at first plastic bottles were collected from water bodies, then simple bamboo frames were created and the collected bottles were placed in the frame, then a layer of water hyacinth was put on top, after waiting for the water hyacinth to turn into compost, crop seeds were planted, microplastic eating fungi were spread around the site, and crops were produced.

Target Audience: The primary target audience of this initiative are the landless farmers and climate refugees of the country, while people interested in hydroponic farming are the secondary target audience.

Approach: Partnering with local Government Agricultural Officers and Bidyanondo, a renowned volunteer organisation, we went to villages, particularly ones with abundant waterbodies, and taught the farmers there how to use plastic bottles for farming.

Additionally, we launched a free website with tutorials, reached out to agricultural enthusiasts and influencers on social media to spread the initiative and even printed the manual for Plastic Farming on MGI products for specific regions.

By teaching the farmers to collect and repurpose plastic waste, this initiative taught the farmers on how to better their lives as well as the environment by using a holistic sustainable farming method.

Implementation: Nationwide workshops, a free website, video tutorials and manuals attached to MGI products were released to help other farmers. To take care of any potential microplastic, the farmers were shown how to release fungi around the sites.

Timeline: After 2 years of thorough research, on 1st August, the first prototype was implemented in 2 locations to initially launch the initiative. After 3 months of observation, the campaign was executed on a large scale in November 2023 and is still in motion.

Placement: Initially, farmers around Pirojpur and Gopalganj were provided with the workshop. Later, nationwide workshops, a free website, video tutorials and manuals attached to MGI products were released to help other farmers and spread the project.

Scale: Initially, over 500 farmers were taught about Plastic Farming. The initiative was then implemented throughout the nation and to date, 15,232 farmers have been taught about Plastic Farming.

Collected 125 tons of plastic waste

Held 117 training sessions online and offline

Trained 15,232 farmers hands-on

Distributed 100,000 flyers

1.1M+ USD Campaign PR value

2.4M+ views on video tutorials

11,573,842 Social media reach

2.5M+ Social media engagement

Enabled 2.4M+ acres for potential farmland

Converted 7,000+ climate refugees into farmers