Authorities in federal capital have announced to impose fines of up to Rs 20,000 over use of plastic bags from next month.
As per details, people caught using polythene bags will be fined Rs 5,000; whereas manufactures will face a penalty of Rs 10,000.
Meanwhile, a fine of Rs 20,000 will be imposed on people found re-using plastic bags.
The development comes as Ministry of Climate Change announced its decision to implement strict measures to tackle climate change issue.
Expressing his views on the ban on plastic bags, Ajmal Baloch – President All Pakistan Anjuman Tajran, said that the main issue regarding the use of polythene bags is that Rawalpindi – the twin city to the federal capital has not yet banned them.
It is pertinent to know that polythene bags have been banned in Islamabad since August 2019 in accordance with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ‘Clean Green Pakistan’ initiative.
Polythene ‘plastic’ bags – A threat to environment
Non-compostable plastic bags can take up to 1000 years to decompose. Plastic bags are not capable of biodegradation but rather they photodegrade, a process by which the plastic bags are broken down into smaller toxic parts.
In the 2000s, many stores and companies began to use different types of biodegradable bags to comply with perceived environmental benefits.
When plastic shopping bags are not disposed of properly, they can end up in streams, which then lead them to end up in the open ocean. To mitigate marine plastic pollution from single-use shopping bags, many jurisdictions around the world have implemented bans or fees on the use of plastic bags. An estimated 300 million plastic bags end up in the Atlantic Ocean alone.
The way in which the bags float in open water can resemble a jellyfish, posing significant dangers to marine mammals and Leatherback sea turtles, when they are eaten by mistake and enter the animals’ digestive tracts. After ingestion, the plastic material can lead to premature death.
Once death occurs and the animal body decomposes, the plastic reenters the environment, posing more potential problems.
