ISLAMABAD – Polythene shopping bags are being produced and used throughout the country despite a ban on their production and use, reflecting an inadequate drive against their manufacture and absence of environment-friendly alternatives. Though the ministry of environment has banned sale, manufacture and use of these light polythene bags; however, it has failed to implement it.
Polythene bags cause environmental pollution if the waste in these bags is not collected and disposed of properly. The common practice of burning them produces dioxins and furans which are organic pollutants and extremely harmful to human and animal health. The use of these bags not only affects survival of marine life but also chokes drains, hampering the flow of gutter pipelines.
Arshad Abbasi, an expert on environmental issues, while talking to Pakistan Today, said that plastic bags in Pakistan were one of the most prevalent types of litter. “Low weight and resistance to degradation have made plastic bags commercially successful and omnipresent,” he said. “Due to their durability, plastic bags can take up to 120 years to decompose. As they slowly decompose, plastic bags break into tiny pieces and discharge toxic chemicals into soils, lakes, rivers, and oceans. At their worst, plastic bags choke drainage systems and contribute to flooding in monsoon as we observed in the year 2010,” he said.
He said garbage was the bigger problem in developing countries like Pakistan where trash collection infrastructure was less developed. “Without a tougher environmental legislation and proper consultation from all the stakeholders, it will be very difficult for the government to attain any success in its fight against polythene,” said Abbasi.
A majority of lightweight polythene bags do not reach the sites where they can be disposed of safely. Instead, they go airborne and are caught in fences and trees. They also provide breeding ground for mosquitoes that spread diseases likes dengue, malaria and other vector ailments. The plastic bags that get buried in landfills may take up to 1,000 years to break down, and in the process they separate into smaller and smaller toxic particles that contaminate soil and water.
Ironically, people do not play their due role to prevent the use of these bags. “They do not ask us about the shoppers we give them. We had been using paper bags as well, but now the use of plastic bags has increased,” commented a shopkeeper, Gulfaraz Khan at G-8 Markaz. Earlier, alternatives to polythene bags such as paper and cloth bags are being introduced into the markets, but they did not receive a good response.
However, statements from the environment department reveal that the manufacturers opposed ban on polythene bags as it would affect jobs of thousands of people associated with plastic bag manufacture industry. They argue that the main issue is collection of solid waste and if it is collected properly, there will be no polythene bags in dustbins.
When contacted, Environment Director General Javaid Ali Khan said they had moved a summery recently to make these polythene bags bio-degradable, and in this way these bags would automatically decompose in the heat of the sun. He added the ministry of environment was taking appropriate steps to address this issue.
