(MENAFN- Tribal News Network) August 23, 2017
FAWAD ALI
PESHAWAR, August 22: The manufacturing and sale of polythene bags go unchecked in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite being banned by the provincial government.
The non-biodegradable plastic bags are manufactured in bulk to keep up with the rising demands of the people.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director General Dr Muhammad Bashir Khan told Tribal News Network that the deadline to impose the ban was going to expire on September 20.
'Once the deadline expires, the law will take its course,' he declared.
The DG said there were around 24 plastic-manufacturing units in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa a few years ago. 'Now this has become a cartel in the province as more factories have been set up,' he added
There is no accurate data available with the EPA to know how many plastic bags are produced daily or yearly in the province. So far no such survey has been carried out.
Experts said the plastic bag was one of the major environmental hazards that affected every aspects of our life.
'It causes fatal diseases, clogs drains, destroys marine life as well as a major cause of low crop yield,' said Dr Muhammad Akmal, Agronomist at Agriculture University Peshawar.
The plastic bags end up in rivers and agricultural land due to lack of unawareness about their proper disposal.
Dr Akmal said the bags that ended up in fields were one of the leading factors behind failure to achieve 90 percent production rate of crops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
'Currently this ratio stands at 74 to 80 percent. Farmers are mostly unaware of its hazards as they don't care to separate the non-biodegradable plastics from animal manure that ultimately land up at agricultural lands,' he pointed out.
When dumped, the more you plough the field the more these plastics bags go deeper.
'It blocks water filtration, prevent nutrients mobilisation in soil and affect plant germination that cause low yield,' he said.
He maintained that in the presence of these pollutants, the farmers would be unable to achieve the target of 90 percent production.
'With the passage of time, the non-biodegradable plastic bags start breaking down into smaller pieces called polymers that are highly toxic contaminating water and soil,' he explained.
Junior Research analyst at Environmental Protection Agency Dr Khaista Gul, who is a PhD in polymers, said non-degradable plastic took decades to degrade.
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