Polythene bags continuing to blot Pakistan’s landscape demonstrates how the resolution of such issues requires not just political will and efficient law-enforcement but also the cooperation of citizens.
These non-biodegradable ‘conveniences’ constitute a serious environmental and health hazard. Apart from being an eyesore, they choke drains and sewerage systems; upon entering rivers or the sea, they have an adverse impact on aquatic life; buried underground, they never decompose; and when burnt, they produce organic, toxic pollutants. It is not that the harm caused by polythene bags has not been recognised; their sale and use has been banned in Balochistan since 2001, while both Punjab and Sindh have also promulgated ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale and use of polythene bags below a certain thicknesses. Nevertheless, the problem of shutting down units that manufacture the material and ensuring that people refuse to use them has proved too great for the authorities, and the bags continue to be widely available.
What is needed is political will: there is no dearth of laws to control the unauthorised manufacture and use of polythene bags but they are not being enforced with sufficient strictness. The issue has even come up for discussion a number of times in the National Assembly but has failed to garner the lawmakers’ attention.
It is time to formulate a policy at the federal level to control this menace, and to look into the environment ministry’s proposal to encourage oxo-biodegradable bags by reducing the duty on the import of the oxo-biodegradable additive used in their manufacture. Yet such efforts on the governmental level will have minimal impact unless citizens do their part by refusing to use polythene bags. Society needs to make an effort towards eradicating this menace, for in doing so it shall be investing in an environmentally clean future.
These non-biodegradable ‘conveniences’ constitute a serious environmental and health hazard. Apart from being an eyesore, they choke drains and sewerage systems; upon entering rivers or the sea, they have an adverse impact on aquatic life; buried underground, they never decompose; and when burnt, they produce organic, toxic pollutants. It is not that the harm caused by polythene bags has not been recognised; their sale and use has been banned in Balochistan since 2001, while both Punjab and Sindh have also promulgated ordinances prohibiting the manufacture, sale and use of polythene bags below a certain thicknesses. Nevertheless, the problem of shutting down units that manufacture the material and ensuring that people refuse to use them has proved too great for the authorities, and the bags continue to be widely available.
What is needed is political will: there is no dearth of laws to control the unauthorised manufacture and use of polythene bags but they are not being enforced with sufficient strictness. The issue has even come up for discussion a number of times in the National Assembly but has failed to garner the lawmakers’ attention.
It is time to formulate a policy at the federal level to control this menace, and to look into the environment ministry’s proposal to encourage oxo-biodegradable bags by reducing the duty on the import of the oxo-biodegradable additive used in their manufacture. Yet such efforts on the governmental level will have minimal impact unless citizens do their part by refusing to use polythene bags. Society needs to make an effort towards eradicating this menace, for in doing so it shall be investing in an environmentally clean future.
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