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Have you ever wondered why every time we walk through the streets and bazaars of Pakistan, we suffer from a deep sense of filth and neglect? Dust seems to be our constant companion. It’s rare to return home without feeling coated in a layer of dirt. Why is that? Signs of environmental neglect are everywhere: shopping bags flutter like flags on roads and fields, cling to trees and fill drains. If one does not live in a planned urban society, one is often confronted with piles of garbage and unmanaged landfills. These waste heaps are often set on fire, which emits toxic fumes. This waste management crisis adds to the pollution and public health problems we already face. Apart from a few pockets of sanitation, this situation prevails in almost every part of the country.
Do we as a nation hate cleanliness? While the majority of Pakistanis believe that cleanliness is half faith, we have a dubious distinction. On a global index measuring environmental performance, air quality, water resources and climate change mitigation called the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), Pakistan ranks a staggering 178 out of 180 countries. While nations like Estonia and Luxembourg thrive with high environmental standards, we are stuck in a cycle of neglect that threatens our quality of life. If we don’t take immediate and transformative steps, we risk not only the degradation of our environment but also the health, dignity and future of our nation.
The EPI is developed through a systematic process that weights various policy objectives and issues categories to comprehensively measure a country’s environmental performance. The index is structured around three primary policy objectives: ecosystem biodiversity (45 percent), environmental health (25 percent), and climate change (30 percent). Each policy objective is divided into specific problem categories, each of which contributes a proportion of the overall weight. For example, within ecosystems, issue categories such as biodiversity and habitat and forests are given weights of 25 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Each issue category is measured by a series of indicators to show the relative importance of different environmental aspects.
Globally, plastic waste is a major contributor to environmental pollution, affecting both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. In the marine environment, plastic makes up about 80 percent of all pollution, with an estimated 8 to 10 million metric tons entering the oceans each year. This widespread plastic debris poses serious threats to marine life, affecting biodiversity and affecting ecosystems. On land, plastics represent about 12 percent of municipal solid waste worldwide. Much of this plastic waste ends up in landfills or is disposed of improperly, causing environmental pollution, soil degradation, and health risks for humans and wildlife. These statistics highlight the urgent need for global cooperation and effective waste management strategies to reduce the growing impact of plastic pollution.
The situation in Pakistan is alarming. The country generates 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. A major part of it is mismanaged, leading to massive environmental degradation. Plastic waste constitutes about 65% of the total waste in urban areas. It is often discarded in landfills or disposed of improperly, increasing pollution levels. The proliferation of plastic bags and debris in roads and water bodies affects ecosystems, harms wildlife and threatens public health. Burning plastic waste in open areas emits toxic fumes, which cause air pollution and respiratory diseases. Emphasizing the urgent need for comprehensive policies, public awareness and sustainable alternatives to reduce plastic pollution, managing such plastic waste is critical to Pakistan’s efforts to achieve its climate goals and protect the environment. damages the
Pakistan’s efforts to curb single-use plastic bags have been marked by comprehensive federal and provincial regulations. However, implementation remains a constant challenge. At the federal level, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency has banned the manufacture, import, sale and use of polythene bags in the Islamabad Capital Territory in 2019, banning the Polythene Bags Regulations 2019, with limited exemptions for industrial and medical use. with The Single-Use Plastics (Prohibition) Regulations, 2023 adopted a phased approach, banning various plastic items such as polythene bags and plastic crockery. Despite widespread public awareness (in 56 percent of surveyed households), enforcement remains weak, with more than 60 percent of household waste still consisting of polythene bags and 30 percent of plastic bottles. Lack of strict enforcement by environmental protection agencies, insufficient resources and over-reliance on awareness campaigns have weakened the effectiveness of these restrictions.
Provincial governments have also implemented similar regulations with varying levels of success. A ban on polythene bags was announced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, with implementation planned after a grace period. Sindh has tried several times to implement sanctions, including a major initiative in 2022, but these efforts have largely failed due to poor coordination and limited resources. A new effort by the Sindh EPA in 2024 met with limited success. Balochistan imposed a ban in Quetta in 2020, with fines ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 500,000, but faced similar challenges in implementation.
The main reason these sanctions fail is the gap between policy and implementation. Weak enforcement mechanisms, lack of viable alternatives, insufficient financial resources and limited capacity of regulatory agencies are obstacles to success. While public awareness and desire to reduce plastic use is evident, these efforts cannot achieve long-term impact without sustained implementation and structural support.
An extensive body of literature has documented the frequent failures of public policy to achieve environmental goals, highlighting the need for alternative approaches such as behavioral mitigation. Recognizing this gap, COMSATS University researchers launched a World Bank-funded project to explore the effectiveness of enforcement and behavioral prevention strategies to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags in retail markets. started
In the first phase, focusing on retailer-directed interventions, implementation measures led to a reduction in SUPB use by 4.48 percentage points. When implementation was combined with behavioral interventions, such as informational and religious counseling, the reduction increased to 4.77 percentage points. Only informational and religious criticism resulted in a decrease of 2.65 percentage points. Religious criticism alone decreased by 1.17 percentage points.
In the second phase, which targeted client-directed interventions, behavioral nuances were found to be effective even without implementation. Informational and religious cues combined decreased SUPB use by 3.38 percentage points, while religious cues alone decreased by 1.91 percentage points. of When behavior points were combined with enforcement, the reduction reached 5.38 percentage points. These results indicate that while enforcement is effective for retailers, customer-directed behavioral cues combined with enforcement are even more so. can reduce, offering a comprehensive approach to reducing plastic pollution.
Despite government efforts to tackle plastic pollution through bans, enforcement measures and behavioral restrictions, achieving a 5-10% reduction in single-use plastic bags and other types of plastic waste remains a challenge. may still fall short of resolving the scale of Annual increases in plastic production and waste generation are fueling these modest reductions, increasing levels of environmental pollution and contamination. Given this ever-increasing volume, long-term solutions cannot rely solely on policy and behavioral changes. A sustainable and impactful solution lies in a technological breakthrough — developing alternatives that are as cheap, light and durable as plastic, yet environmentally sustainable. Only such innovation can provide a scalable solution to the global plastic crisis and achieve meaningful, lasting reductions in plastic pollution.
Recent research into alternatives to single-use plastic bags (SUPBs) has identified some potential breakthroughs. Innovations include biodegradable materials such as seaweed-based plastics, which decompose faster than conventional plastics. Companies like Sway are developing seaweed-derived bioplastics that aim to replace traditional packaging. Additionally, researchers are exploring methods of biodegradation: plastic-eating fungi identified in Germany and polystyrene-digesting mealworm larvae in Kenya offer new ways to reduce plastic waste. .
These developments, combined with policy measures such as plastic bag bans, represent a multi-pronged approach to reducing plastic pollution. Seaweed-based and cornstarch-derived bioplastics provide lightweight, sustainable and cost-effective alternatives. Materials like hemp and jute offer a reusable solution, albeit at a higher cost. Despite this progress, achieving the ideal balance of affordability, durability and decomposition efficiency remains a challenge. Continued research and development is critical to finding universally applicable alternatives that can effectively replace SUPBs and reduce their environmental impact.
Dr. Rafi Amiruddin is a tenured Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Economics, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus.
