Success eludes drive against polythene bags in Abbottabad

ABBOTTABAD: Little success was achieved in the campaign launched by the district administration a year ago to discourage the use of the polythene bags in the garrison city.

The district administration launched the campaign in a bid to help reduce the use of polythene bags, but the unavailability of low-cost shopping bags made of cloth or paper proved to be the main hindrance. Plastic is non-biodegradable and thus causes pollution as it cannot be recycled and burning it diffuses harmful smoke. Plastic bags can prove to be hazardous for small animals. The mass use of plastic has steadily grown ever since.

The polythene bags are used due to their low cost and easy availability. When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Abbottabad Mughees Sanaullah said the government had been trying to protect the environment in the tourist destinations. He said the district administration launched the campaign to discourage the use of polythene bags. The deputy commissioner said that bags made of cloth have been introduced, adding that the prisoners at the district jail and the Social Welfare Department had been involved to manufacture at low cost bags.

He said cloth-made bags would be provided to the grocery stores at subsidised rates. Mughees Sanaullah said that the option of paper bags was also under consideration. It may be pointed out that as consumption increases day by day with the increase in population, there is an urgent need of farsighted and holistic solutions to this problem. In this consumer-based society, many products are made of or packaged in plastic.

Milk, yogurt, rice, sugar, pulses and a number of other items are packed in plastic material whereas local administration has banned the use of plastic bags for carrying these items. The district administration introduced cloth-made bags and made them available in grocery stores to minimize the use of polythene bags.

Every consumer has to pay Rs50 to Rs70 per bag for carrying grocery items. Most of the consumers asked the administration to make the shopkeepers bound to provide these bags at subsidised rate. It is believed that paper bags are environment-friendly because they can be recycled.