Daily Times

Sir: We have become a ‘throwaway’ society. Everything from eatables to wearables comes in covers and wrappers. We, a small family of two grown ups and three little children, indeed produce a great quantity of solid waste. Keeping this in view when I imagine how much solid waste 200 million Pakistanis produce, I become afraid. No proper disposal system exists in our beloved homeland. People throw away solid waste into empty plots. Carelessly thrown away solid waste produces a stench and scavengers.
Solid waste is of two types: biodegradable and non-biodegradable but no one here tries to differentiate between these two. Polythene shopping bags have become a throw away luxury. Similarly, disposable plastic bottles are strewn everywhere in Pakistan. In famous tourist resorts I have seen lots of shopping bags and plastic bottles. All this waste is non-biodegradable and decomposers like fungus and bacteria possess no enzymes to do away with these non-natural synthetic materials. In Pakistan, no landfill or incinerator exists to do away with solid waste. In Islamabad, many common people burn their solid waste in the open air and show no concern about toxic gases. This is despite the fact that burning solid waste in the open is a crime in Pakistan.
Japan incinerates solid waste in closed chambers to produce thermal electricity and treats toxic gases before allowing them to escape. Japan has made solid waste such an asset that it is planning to purchase shiploads of solid waste from the free market. On the other hand we have made solid waste a liability for our environment.
MUHAMMAD ASHTAR
Islamabad