M Jawwad Masood
IN Islamabad we see solid waste in the markets, streets, green belts and water channels. This waste is growing day by day. Solid waste looks odd and spoils the beauty of the modern planned capital city of Pakistan. In this age the types of waste has varied a great deal. On their own people are becoming more and more cautious about cleanliness and purity of the products they purchase.
Therefore, they demand everything in packing so they open the packing and enjoy the neat and clean product which has been in minimum human contact. On the other hand this behaviour has increased packaging waste. Actually people have become lethargic and change in their behaviour has not only increased waste packaging in the market but also a sizable increase in product prices because of expenses incurring on development of quality exquisite looking packaging. Today different packaging materials are in frequent use e.g., polythene shopper bags (invented in 1960 in Sweden) cardboard/tin/plastic boxes, bubble wraps, corrugated paper rolls, foam edge guards, ampoules, strips, blister, paperboard/carton, flexible, fibreboard, HDPE/PET/Rigid, LDP/LLDPE/Flexible, Aluminum, Glass/Jars, and asbestos sheet etc packaging are in frequent use. With increase in consumerism increasing volumes and quantities of packaging are in use.
The other waste generated not on a daily basis but every minute is organic waste, construction waste, infectious waste and definite waste (that cannot be recycled or composted). If all this waste gets mixed the huge quantities of waste (generated in millions of tons/annum) in Pakistan is going not fill but let us say top up the land area. CDA has been moving year after year waste dumpsites from one sector to other and a need to further shift the waste dumpsite still exists. As the population increases it reaches near waste dumpsite, when dumpsite falls within the sector it is moved outside and a new sector is settled. Obviously, this is not a once for all solution. The actual solution to the problem of dynamically and complex problem of waste is waste segregation at source. Presently governments in Pakistan are spending billions of rupees on solid waste management to come up with a solution that is appreciated by public, however, governments are constantly failing not just because of administrative, political, financial and legislative failures but there is a more crucial factor that is missing from the overall solid waste management and that is waste sorting at source.
No reasonable change in the behaviour of society is sustainable unless it is backed by reward and punishment mechanism. The government needs to promote and implement integrated solid waste segregation system using the force of law. To begin with the government decentralize solid waste management to local level giving various companies mandate to bring in integrated solid waste segregation system for the area comes in their scope. Or we will as we are be increasing waste lands by spending billions of rupees and disturbing the environmental peace.
—The writer is freelance columnist, based in Islamabad.
