In Bangladesh, elections are massive events. We launched the campaign at largest election, the National Election. But throughout the year political leaders run various major campaigns and flood the streets with millions of posters to catch voters' attention.

By repurposing unused posters into notebooks for underprivileged children, Bidyanondo’s Election Poster Notebook campaign greatly contributes to uplifting education in marginalized areas of Bangladesh. After every election, be that the mayor election, local government’s election, or the National Election, Bidyanondo will continue to run the campaign.

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.

Children across Bangladesh begin their academic year in January. At the same time, election results are also published in January. Therefore, the campaign was able to provide children with notebooks just as they were ready to join or rejoin school.

.

Bidyanondo’s mission is to provide education, nourishment, mental and physical support to the distressed and to make people self-sufficient by permanently rehabilitating them. One of their goals is to engage students and professionals in Bangladesh and work together to educate, empower, and lift orphaned of society. In line with SDG 04: Quality Education, notebooks were given for free by using the election posters.

Brand value specific to SDG 04: To engage students and professionals in Bangladesh and work together to educate, empower, and lift orphaned of society.

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. However, after the elections, 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

During the election period, all political parties tend to ignore the regulatory policy regarding posters, fliers and banners. As a result, the massive amount of paper and plastic not only get wasted but they harm the environment due to improper disposal. Along with this, Bangladesh is still a Least Developed Country. The high socio-economic disparity causes a lack of access to quality education for millions of underprivileged children. They also lack educational materials such as notebooks.

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 volunteers went to the streets collecting election posters and cleaning the streets in the process. The posters which can be reused were binded 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, while the political leaders and candidates of the election are the secondary target audience.

Approach: Bidyanondo 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 binded 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

Bidyanondo aims to create a more equitable world by providing education to children from marginalised communities. The Election Poster Notebook provides the educational resource of notebooks to underprivileged children while simultaneously recycling thousands of tons of paper used across elections in Bangladesh.

The project will be scaled by distributing notebooks all across the nation to children who have trouble accessing basic educational materials.

Bangladesh has 4 types of elections; National Elections, Local Elections, City Council Elections and Upazila Elections. The next step is to collect posters from all the upcoming elections to continue turning posters into notebooks and inspire others to take up similar initiatives.

Bidyanondo and City Corporation collected 2,000 tons of paper and recycled it, in turn potentially saving approximately 50,000 trees from being cut down.

The project is based on the reality that Bangladesh lacks proper waste management for posters after elections are over. This places a burden on the environment. On the other hand, underprivileged children lack access to educational materials such as notebooks. Election Poster Notebook aims to help both the problems simultaneously by turning the unused sides of posters into notebooks. In turn, taking a step towards a more equitable nation.