Can Pakistan turn its waste into profit?
https://arab.news/bgu49
According to EPA, Pakistan generates around 20 million tons of solid waste a year, which has been increasing at a rate of more than 2 percent annually. The government of Pakistan estimates that around 71,000 tons of solid waste is generated per day from major metropolitan areas. Despite being a signatory to the Basel Convention, Pakistan is being used by many developed countries around the world as a dumping ground for over 50,000 tons of e-waste, which creates environmental and health hazards. Since recycling of e-waste requires higher costs, developed countries have a tendency to dump their waste in underdeveloped and developing countries. USA, Singapore as well as some European countries are using Pakistan to dump old, used computers. Due to improper disposal, lead, mercury, copper find their way into ground water and soil by leaching through the landfills. Faulty and outdated domestic legal standards between developed and developing countries have paved a way for the transboundary North-South movement of waste and toxic products.
Plastic waste imports into Pakistan have shown an exponential growth in the past few years. Between January 2019 and April 2020, around 65,000 metric tons of plastic waste was shipped into the country. Pakistan is importing plastic waste which even includes contaminated and hazardous hospital waste (Covid-19 related waste included), sewage pipes, hazardous PVC scrap along with a plethora of other toxic waste without conducting any laboratory tests on consignments mainly from the UK, Belgium, Canada, Germany and Saudi Arabia in a complete violation of the Basel Convention. It’s surprising to know, that while many countries around the world, including China, which was handling half of the world’s recyclable waste for 25 years, are banning the import of plastic scrap, Pakistan is one of the few countries still allowing this. It is noteworthy to mention that some neighboring countries in the region like India, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia have either totally banned the import of plastic scrap or introduced restrictions in a bid to protect their environment and health of the people.
Pakistan itself produces an estimated seven million tons of plastic waste every year, and recyclables constitute around 13 to 23 percent of the solid waste generated in the country.
Dr. Mehreen Mujtaba
Pakistan itself produces an estimated seven million tons of plastic waste every year, and recyclables constitute around 13 to 23 percent of the solid waste generated in the country.
There is enormous untapped potential of our recycling industry to turn waste into profitable products. However, waste collection being an informal sector without much technical knowledge, most factories buying recyclables are not formal facilities but small industries with marginal technical knowledge in producing sustainable recycled products.
On the other hand, most high quality plastic manufacturers in Pakistan use imported raisins and pellets because those produced locally from recycled material are contaminated at source due to an unavailability of a proper sorting mechanism, since there’s hardly any segregation of waste.
In addition, the recycled waste produced in the country can be efficiently utilized to meet some of the energy needs of the megacities. The government of Punjab has initiated a waste to energy plant of 35MW capacity, which is fuelled by municipal waste generated in Lahore.
In addition, there is a dire need to develop a system of “clean waste”, where household waste is segregated in different streams such as paper, glass, metal, plastic as well as organic and green waste, where the ultimate goal is 'sustainable materials management', a systemic approach of using and reusing materials more productively over their entire life cycle. This approach envisions a world based on a circular economy.
The above narrative builds a strong case for focus on limiting the imports of hazardous waste into the country and rather building a system where the waste produced in the country is utilized as well as disposed off efficiently.
E-waste is an issue that must be addressed immediately. Firstly, strategies must be adopted to reduce the generation of local e-waste as well as proper disposal. Secondly, and most importantly, strong political will is required to prevent the legal or illegal import of such waste into the country, otherwise the unregulated accumulation of e-waste could turn into a major public health disaster. Along with e-waste, stricter environmental standards and regulations must be implemented in order to drastically reduce or completely ban the import of plastic waste into the country.
– Dr. Mehreen Mujtaba is a freelance consultant working in the areas of environment and health.
