Ten rickshaw-vans of the Environment-friendly Shopping Bag Manufactures Association (ESMA) will be selling the bags as part of a campaign to popularise the use of jute bags instead of banned polythene shopping bags.

The places where these bags will be available are Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Mirpur-10, Kaptanbazar, Thataribazar, in front of Bangladesh Bank, Mohakhali, Fakirerpul, New Market and Mohammadpur Town Hall Bazar.

Although the government banned the polythene bags last year, dishonest manufacturers brought them back to the markets.

The government also took initiatives to promote jute bags but failed because of their high prices compared to polythene bags.

"We bought one lakh jute bags from Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) soon after the ban on polythene bags. We could not sell them all, as people did not want to buy them at Tk 7 each," said ESMA President Khalilur Rahman Chowdhury.

Only 30,000 jute bags were sold and the polythene bags crept back into the market. "The unsold bags were kept in warehouses. To reduce our staggering loss, we have decided to sell them cheaper at Tk 3 each," Chowdhury said.

"We are also trying to reach an agreement with the BJMC to buy 25 lakh more jute bags which have long been stockpiled in different jute mills. If the mill authorities sell us each bag at Tk 2.5, we will sell at Tk 3 retail," he said.

"But none of our efforts will be successful unless people stop buying polythene bags. More stringent punishment should be meted out to discourage production and use of polythene bags," he added.

The Department of Environment (DOE) has come forward to help the ESMA. "We will assist them in the publicity campaign. We will put their advertisements on print and electronic media free," DOE Director General Omar Faruque Khan said.

"This apart, our anti-polythene drive will continue," Khan promised.

Environment and Forest Minister Shahjahan Siraj is likely to inaugurate a mobile jute-bag shop in the city on October 26.