Ban on shopping bags to render 0.3 million jobless

Polythene bags commonly known as plastic shopping bags are normally used for packing and carrying utility stuffs. A majority of people prefer to carry goods in polythene bags. Streets and roads of urban as well as rural areas are littered with polythene bags creating hindrance in waste disposal and sewerage lines.

WASA MD Javed Iqbal said that plastic bags becoming the principal means of bringing home groceries and other shopping items are dumped in drains causing sewerage and drainage problems. He said that the use of traditional means such as cloth bags and paper bags has dropped dramatically while prevalence of plastic bags is nearly equal in urban and rural areas.

He said that since plastic did not decompose, polythene bags clogged drains and sewers resulting in water logging. “Polythene bags’ recycling causes release of hydrogen cyanide gas which may lead to breathing difficulties and chest problems,” he added. “No doubt their large quantity in solid waste persuaded many to recycle them but recycled plastic bags are carcinogenic (cancer inducing) in nature and pose a potential threat to the manufacturer as well as the user, as they are not food grade material and hence contaminate food stored in them,” he said

“Though people prefer to carry shopping bags but they do not know how much pollution it causes. Almost all other chemical products are biodegradable -recyclable. But the problem with plastic bags is that they cannot be recycled. So they are doing nothing else but playing a highly vital role in polluting our environment,” says Dr Irshaad Hussain, a researcher.