lastic bags are considered an environmental evil because plastic waste wreaks havoc. We see it on our streets, in our rivers and lakes, on our beaches; and in our deepest oceans. It is estimated that there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. Let us not be as foolish as to think that it will stay there. After it is eaten by fish and marine life, causing significant damage, it will enter the bodies of anyone who eats them. Many environmental scientists and activists are calling for a complete plastic bag ban.

Responding to the call, policymakers in many countries have passed local laws, banning plastic bags. City governments in several Asian countries, including Pakistan, are on the warpath against plastic shopping bags. But this misses the point.

People do not object to using biodegradable bags and consider them a welcome return to the traditional practice of using shopping baskets and bags made from locally available materials that are less harmful to the environment. What needs to be remembered is that plastic bags were made for a purpose and were designed to satisfy a need. Thin plastic can do many things that paper and other substitutes for plastic cannot. Indeed, there are ways in which thin plastic may be more beneficial than the substitutes.

Plastic bags are widely appreciated for wrapping food, water and other liquids. They are also helpful as a protective lining for rubbish bins, a protective wrap for delicate clothing material, or temporarily sealing roof and tap leaks. Further, thin plastic is lightweight, can withstand heat and cold, can hold up over time, and is cheap and easy to mass-produce. Therefore, it is unsurprising that this revolutionary product is present in almost every aspect of modern life.

These and many other functions make the plastic bag a versatile and practical invention of the 20th Century. Another advantage of the plastic bag is that it is reusable. Although some plastic bags are too thin for reuse, the solution is to manufacture more robust and durable plastic film bags, not discard them altogether.

One reason that plastic film bags are widely seen as an environmental nuisance is that most are non-biodegradable. But if they were manufactured from biodegradable material — such as the bioplastics that are now being produced in some European countries — the main reason for banning them would disappear.

Lilia Casanova, a former deputy director at the UN Environment Programme says that “even with a change of material, there is no guarantee that environmental damage from plastics would stop. This is because the evil is not in the material used but in the behaviour of those who do not know or do not care” about how to dispose of the product.

Another reason is the very property that makes plastic so dangerous: its durability and long lifespan make it a great asset. A material that will not die or be destroyed for five hundred years is valuable. We can reuse it almost endlessly. A material that can be constantly recycled is an excellent help to ecology and the economy, especially when the human population is proliferating and our lifestyle demands are increasing exponentially. The problem is not plastic per se. The problem is using it irresponsibly. The solution is not to ban plastic but to ensure that it is used responsibly and appropriately recycled.

While demonising plastic, regulators cannot ignore the contribution to the economy of the thin plastics industry. The plastics industry generates hundreds of thousands of jobs in Pakistan alone. Policymakers in many countries are now realising this fact. Australia, for example, has decided to reduce high-density polyethylene (HDPE) thin plastic bags but not ban those because of the negative impact it would have on employment. A plastic-free planet should not only be for the privileged but also provide solutions and alternatives for many who depend on this cheap, lightweight and accessible material.

It is important that in a rush to become plastic-free, we do not turn to unsustainable or damaging alternatives. For instance, the plastic bag ban in Islamabad and some other parts of the country invited non-woven bags to infiltrate Pakistani markets quickly. Although non-woven bags look and feel like cloths, they are made of polypropylene, a kind of plastic. They are non-eco-friendly and non-biodegradable, as hazardous to health and the environment as plastic bags. They have now been declared plastic in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The plastic industry fools the public into believing that these bags are made of cloth. These bags put even more pressure on the waste stream as they are heavy and not easily recyclable.

Similar studies have suggested that paper shopping bags often carry a larger carbon footprint than plastic shopping bags as they are less likely to be reused. A reused plastic bag’s carbon footprint is significantly lower than a paper bag’s. Indeed, if not adequately managed, paper can be a worse polluter than plastic bags; it occupies nine times as much space in landfills and does not break down substantially faster than plastic.

The answer to the problems associated with thin plastic bag use is not a ban but better management. Managing plastic bags means knowing how to use and store them properly so that they can be reused many times and knowing how they can be recycled when their useful life has ended.

There is a need to develop and propagate guidelines on how to use, maintain, reuse, recover and recycle plastic bags. Recycling technologies for thin plastic bags are now widely available. A comprehensive economic policy framework must be created to streamline and commercialise plastic recycling. The government is responsible for raising social awareness about responsible use and recycling.

A circular economy can recast our plastic problem into a sustainable solution. A systemic change is needed where resources are valued, redesigned, recycled and reused. Once we can create a market (value) for plastic and show people that plastic is precious (rather than waste), there will be no plastic waste anywhere. Plastic bottles are already being collected and recycled. A blueprint for transforming “waste into money” is the need of the hour.

Banning plastic bags implies that those are useless and disregards their practical functionality, convenience, durability and affordability. There is no real, cost-effective, and versatile substitute for plastic bags in packaging. It is the misuse and improper disposal of plastic bags that is causing harm to the environment, not the product itself. A total ban on plastic bags will raise bigger problems than the world is currently facing. It will not save the environment from the negative effects of a “throwaway” culture.

The writer is an associate professor at the Department of Economics, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus