Every year, 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide. Half of this plastic is designed to be used only once, and only 10 per cent is recycled, an eye-opening report says.
Between 19 and 23 million tons of plastic waste leaks into aquatic ecosystems annually, and without urgent action, this figure is expected to rise by 50 per cent by 2040, the United Nations’ report
According to environmentalists, plastic pollution is contaminating every corner of the planet, threatening ecosystems, wildlife, and human health.
Microplastics are found in food, water and air, with the average person estimated to ingest over 50,000 plastic particles each year, and far more when inhalation is included.
If the climate crisis goes unaddressed, with plastic pollution as a major driver, air pollution levels exceeding safe thresholds could rise by 50 per cent within a decade. Meanwhile, plastic pollution in marine and freshwater environments may triple by 2040.
In developing countries like Pakistan, the plastic induced pollution is on the rise and getting unmanageable.
Being an affordable and durable material, plastic has made its way into every Pakistani home in the form of furniture, containers and on the top of every thing in the form of packaging material or shopping bags.
According to data available with Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Pakistan generates around 3.3 million tons of plastic waste annually. Plastic bags are the major portion of this waste as some 55 billion plastic bags are used by Pakistanis annually. In the city of Lahore alone, 15 billion plastic bags are used every year.
They are Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) bags for which Punjab is reported to have the highest demand (approximately 1.3 million tons/annum) for daily life.
In order to meet ever rising demand of bags, some 11,000 plastic manufacturing units, both formal and informal establishments, are working day and night. Of these, 65 percent are located in Punjab province.
Plastic bags, generally considered economical and affordable packaging material, end up in landfills, unmanaged dumps, or scattered across land and water bodies, without undergoing decay for years.
To cope with this environmental hazards, green technologies like the use of additive to ensure the early decay of the polythene bags have been introduced in the plastic manufacturing processes. But these technologies are being adopted by Pakistani plastic manufacturing units at a very slow pace.
