After repeated failed attempts of previous regimes, the present government has once again geared up a campaign to cleanse the federal capital of plastic waste.
With consistent population influx to Islamabad Capital Territory, the city continued getting dirtier in recent years making the government reorganize its efforts for a cleaner capital. From North to South, no drain, spring, river plain, or watercourse is found pure from plastics as the irresponsible attitude of the masses as well as city managers gradually adulterated the city. Today almost every water body is contaminated with single-use plastic bags, wrappers of chips, biscuits, water bottles, cold drinks, and single-use plastic cutlery. Now the situation in the capital is also not much different from other cities where littering has become a permanent threat to the environment. The biome is repeatedly ambushed by formidable tourists throwing their waste carelessly into natural habitats endangering wildlife, birdlife, and other species. Cognizant of the situation, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination through its Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) has re-launched a campaign to ban the one-time use of plastics under its proud slogan of “Say No to Plastics”. “The Ministry is spearheading enforcement of Single-Use Plastics (Prohibition) Regulations, 2023 that bars manufacturing, importing, distribution, sale and use of single-use plastic items,” remarked Director General, Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Farzana Altaf Shah.
