Non-degradable products: Plastic bags posing environmental hazards – The Express Tribune
Posted on January 28, 2015 by DrRossH in Plastic Limiting RegulationsNon-degradable products: Plastic bags posing environmental hazards – The Express Tribune.
ISLAMABAD: The increasing prevalence of plastic use is not only adding to the municipal waste of the city but also causing environment hazards as the environmental regulatory body has failed to enforce its regulations.
On April 1, 2013, the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) notified a regulation prohibiting manufacture, import, sale and use of non-degradable plastic products and other plastic materials in the country, including in the limits of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), but due to a weak enforcement mechanism, its sale and use is consistently on the rise across the country.
The use of oxo bags to control an environmental problem is a fallacy. The oxo additive mentioned above causes the bags that are left out in the open to fragment down to little pieces of plastic. The claim they then biodegrade is unfounded and should not be made. it is the salespeople selling bags that make these false claims trying to sell more bags. They would appear to put their pocket book before the environment of the country they live in. An oxo bag will not even fragment if covered in a landfill as there it gets deprived of sunlight and oxygen both of which are needed for the fragmentation process to work.
The claim that many western countries use oxo as a means to control plastic bags in the environment is wrong. Many of these countries are banning oxo bags in reality as they are so bad for the environment.
The real solution is to do as the govt tried to do which is to ban plastic bags and encourage the use of the cotton ones.
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