In Bangladesh, elections are massive events. During the National Election, political leaders run major campaigns and flood the streets with millions of posters to catch voters' attention.

However, once the election is over, these posters not only linger throughout the city but accumulate on the grounds causing waterlogs and hampering the beauty of our communities.

(Non-profit): Bidyanondo’s ‘Election Poster Notebook’ initiative was implemented using volunteers, who collected posters directly from the streets and then bound them to make notebooks which were distributed among children from marginalized communities

Even though Bangladesh has regulatory policies against it, posters are pasted across the entire country during elections. They are even put up on private walls of buildings and hung on wires. Leading to an incredible wastage of paper. On the other hand, due to socio-economic disparity, millions of underprivileged children lack access to educational materials such as notebooks.

Situation: During every election in Bangladesh, streets are covered with posters by every political party, conveying their promise to the public and ensuring their trust in the candidate. During the national election, which takes place every 4 years, over 75 million posters consume the streets of Bangladesh. However, after the election, these posters not only linger throughout the city but accumulate on the grounds causing waterlogs and hampering the beauty of our communities. As a prominent NGO, Bidyanondo wanted to prevent the environmental pollution caused by millions of posters.

Brief: As the national election is about to take place, find a solution to the environmental degradation caused by election posters by repurposing them for a better cause.

Objectives:

• Prevent environmental pollution caused by posters

• Clean the streets of posters after the election

• Transform waste into opportunity

The insight that drove our initiative was that election posters are printed on one side, leaving a blank canvas on the other. Bidyanondo proudly presents – Election Poster Notebooks, an initiative to turn posters into notebooks.

Process: On the day the election ended, Bidyanondo’s volunteers went to the streets collecting election posters and cleaning the streets in the process. The posters which can be reused were bound and turned into notebooks, and the unusable ones were repurposed to make recycled paper. Seeing this initiative, even the local city corporation was compelled to collect and recycle posters, cleaning the streets in one day.

Data gathering: Data was gathered from reliable news portals such as The Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune along with other news hubs on the impact of election posters on the environment.

Target Audience: The primary target audience of this initiative is the local city corporation and local authorities. The political leaders and candidates of the election were the secondary target audience.

Approach: Bidyanondo’s volunteers went to the streets on the day of the national election to collect posters and clean up the streets. Seeing this initiative, local city corporation were compelled to join the initiative and clean up the streets in one day.

Implementation: On the day the election ended, Bidyanondo volunteers went to the streets collecting election posters and cleaning the streets in the process. The posters which can be reused were bound and turned into notebooks and the unusable ones were repurposed to make recycled paper.

Timeline: The initiative was launched on National Election Day, 7th January 2024

Placement: The initiative was launched nationwide. In major areas where the number of voters was high, the number of posters was also predictably high.

Scale: Bidyanondo’s volunteers went to major areas across the nation to collect posters and clean up the streets. Approximately 100,000+ posters were collected through the Election Poster Notebook initiative from major regions in Bangladesh.

100,000+ posters collected by Bidyanondo

11,200 notebooks made and distributed

920,000+ posters collected from donations

90,600+ notebooks can be made with remaining posters

1,238 Ton posters collected and recycled by City Corporation

1 day to clean the entire country

35,500+ USD worth of PR generated organically