The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to implement the Prohibition of Non-degradable Plastic Products Regulations, 2013, as well as the Environment Protection Act, 1997, to prevent the usage of forbidden plastic bags across the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
Captain (r) Muhammad Usman Younis, Chairman of the CDA, has decided to pursue a two-pronged approach in this regard, asking authorities to raise awareness against the use of non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags and initiate operations to confiscate such bags in ICT’s rural and urban regions.
The Chairman remarked that the use of non-biodegradable bags persists despite the knowledge that the product is not only a health hazard but also pollutes the environment and blocks water and sewage pipelines. These bags do not degrade for hundreds of years and severely compromise soil fertility.
The CDA’s senior management has directed the Director General (DG) Enforcement to execute an operation in rural and urban parts of the federal capital to collect shopping bags and prevent the use of harmful products.
The management has also issued directions requiring the use of environmentally friendly bags made of natural fibers, which have been brought into the market. According to a CDA officer, in the previous two years, raiding teams have seized 200 kg of shopping bags from Aabpara Market, marketplaces in different sectors of the G and I series, Khanna Bridge, Bhara Kahu, Kuri Road, Park Road, Tarnol, and Koral.
Utter nonsense. These people frame policies in a vacuum. When irrelevant people are made to head organizations like CDA, such stupidities are bound to surface.
What is the alternative to plastic bags? Paper bags? Are good quality paper bags strong enough to hold groceries as also affordable? No.
Bags made from cloth? Will you wash such bags each time you return home after carrying mud- filled potatoes etc.?
Polyester bags? The problem is the same as in the case of cloth bags.
In either case you waste water and detergent to wash these bags or else you risk COVID and similar other communicable diseases.
We saw our parents from 1970 to 1985 carrying all shopping articles in cotton bags in Peshawar and managed with grace. As plastic bag sellers are a powerful mafia therefore for the sake of posterity the CDA initiative need appreciation. For potatoes one can carry a separate bag. The rest of veg and fruits are always clean.