Poor compliance of ban on plastic bags in suburbs of Islamabad

Islamabad: The federal capital’s suburban and rural areas are flouting the ban imposed by the government on single time use plastic or polythene bags.

The markets’ especially the I-11 fruits and vegetables market and Sunday bazaars in the suburbs and rural areas of the metropolis, were still using plastic bags for both perishable and non-perishable items, said Abiha a house wife while talking to this agency.

The situation became more interesting, she said, when a vendor in Sunday Bazaar at Peshawar Morr was asked to give vegetables in a plastic bag and he plainly refused to give any.

Sunday Bazaars within the urban areas are following the ban on plastic bags while those in rural vicinity are one way or the other deriding the ban on plastic bags. The authorities shall take into account such contraventions to ensure full implementation, she added.

When contacted Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials told APP that regular visit to inspect different markets and bazaars were made by the teams comprising of EPA, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration and Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) officials.

Recently our teams have visited the rural and suburban areas of Chatta Bakhtawar, Chak Shehzad, Shakrial, Sohan, Khanna Pul and housing societies in the vicinity.

The branded outlets of garments, shoes, foodies, bakeries and others were fully complying the ban in the suburban areas. However, the small picket owners and vendors are not complying the ban in these markets, he added.

As per the legislation, he said, Rs 10,000 fine would be imposed on the violator found on the spot where these small vendors and picket holders did not had the total stock of Rs 10,000. Therefore, these vendors were called to the EPA office and exhorted to abstain using plastic bags as the new legislation in place had strictly forbidden its use, he added.

To a question, he said there was only 30 to 40 percent compliance of plastic bags ban in the rural areas where it would be increased through education and awareness of the poor masses. Director Chemicals MoCC and In charge Implementation Team sub-urban region of the federal capital Dr Zaigham Abbas said the inspection team was visiting four different zones of the federal capital for two-day a week.

The four zones were divided into city, industrial, Saddar and rural zones where he was heading the rural zone inspection. Responding to a query, he said the I-11 fruits and vegetables market was recently visited by his team where he seized 1200 kilogrammes of plastic bags hidden in a deep freezer in a store.

After our regular visits the main warehouses of the market have switched to alternate packaging of plastic bags. “However, other rural areas are also being visited time and again,” he added.