Say No To Plastics

In a landmark decision during the Club’s Weekly Meeting on Friday the 3rd of September, 2021, the Rotary Club of Thimphu resolved as follows:

AGENDA 3:

Rtn. Yeshey Dorji proposed to the Members that our Club should henceforth decline all and any projects that have components of supply of non-biodegradable Shed Nets, Green Houses and Mulching Plastics. He said that supporting projects that require these environmentally harmful plastics is in conflict with Bhutan’s environmental friendly image. He said that the Club could, however, accept the donation of plastics that are bio-degradable and harmless to the environment.

The Club President and other Members present in the Meeting agreed with the proposal and said that we should do nothing that would contribute to environmental degradation. Additionally the Members were reminded that as of this Rotary Year 2021-2022, Rotary International had adopted a new and its 7th area of focus – ENVIRONTMENT. Thus in keeping with the Rotary International’s endeavors to support the protection of the environment, all the Members agreed that Rotary Club of Thimphu will forthwith not support any agriculture projects that have components of supply of non-biodegradable shed nets, green houses and mulching plastics.

Over the last six years, the Rotary Club of Thimphu’s contribution to the country’s agriculture sector has totaled over Nu.13.00 million. Of that quite a substantial amount went into supporting the supply of shed nets, green houses and mulching plastics.

One of the many large greenhouses donated by the Club in support of agriculture production

The government talks of organic farming but they officially supply fertilizers and weedicides and pesticides. They make a show of banning plastics but subsidize the installation of shed nets, green houses and mulching plastics. They are mindless about where these plastics will ultimately end up.

Today because of the irresponsibility and poor stewardship of the agriculture sector by the people at the helm of things, the country is strewn with thousands of miles of plastics that will ultimately end up inside the belly of the mother earth. If we cannot contribute to the improvement of the health of the environment, let us not contribute to its deterioration.

Let us be more responsible than our government has been – Let us stop the use of non-biodegradable plastics in agriculture production.