Youth of Karachi March Against Plastic

There was only a single slogan on their lips: “Save our future generations and ban on single use of plastic”.

Plastic bags were introduced in 1970’s by a Swedish firm and become popular amongst consumers and retailers. Now the plastic bags (Polythene Bags) are available in huge quantities and varieties across the world including Pakistan. According to an old study 12 million plastic bags were used in Pakistan in 1990 to 1991 and this use rose to 43 billion in 2005 and in 2007 up to 55 billion, and it’s expected the current utilization quantity is quite high as well as its increasing by 15%/ Year. This extensive utilization is attributed to their cheapness and convenience to use. The vast majority of these bags are discarded as wastes usually after a single use.

It is important to note that after their entry into environment, plastic bags can persist up to 100-1000 years without being decomposed by sun light and/or microorganisms (Non-Biodegradable). Accumulation of plastic bag wastes causes environmental pollution that can be form of various types as its causing deterioration of natural beauty of an environment, death of domestic and wild animals, endangering marine biodiversity, choking sewage systems, damaging sanitation situations, as well contributing in green house gaseous emissions, and also producing POPS i.e Dioxins and Furans.

On March 4, 2018, youth of Karachi, stood in front of the Karachi Press Club, instead of demanding for Government jobs, rigging in the elections, neither supporting to any political party has how many seats lost, and how the he became Senator etc. There was only a single slogan on their lips: “Save our future generations and ban on single use of plastic”. They demanded to ensure biodegradable plastic bags utilization at consumer level as well as requested to manufacturers to produce biodegradable plastics and add less toxic elements. As we can protect our oceans, biodiversity as well as beauty of nature. They also requested to NGOs to contribute more in Target of SDG (Goal 14) which are working on different elements of SDGs for the sustainable development of country.

Youth is the last hope for the betterment of environment, and it’s expected the youth will create massive awareness momentum and will play vital role in protection of our mother earth and achieving sustainability of our environment.