A Pakistani province is trying to tackle its waste problem by banning plastic bags.
The decision was made in August by the government of Balochistan, 24NewsHD reports. Balochistan is the largest Pakistani province by area, but the smallest by population.
Sarfaraz Bugti, Balochistan's chief minister, announced the ban after meeting with the waste management division of Quetta, the province's capital and largest city. Officials told Bugti that 1,000 tons of garbage are collected daily from the city.
Earlier this summer, Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, also banned thin, single-use plastic bags.
Pakistan has struggled for years with how to control its plastic-bag waste. A 2019 report estimated that the country used upwards of 112 billion single-use plastic bags each year, and without consistent waste-management services, much of that ended up washing into the Arabian Sea.
Another report found that the Indus River, which flows through Pakistan, is responsible for the second-most plastic pollution into oceans of any river, trailing only the Yangtze.
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Plastic-bag bans have become more common across the globe, as countries try to reduce the amount of plastic waste that pollutes our planet. And the good news is, these bans work.
In the U.S., only nine states have banned plastic bags so far, but those bans have produced immediate results. New Jersey's 2022 ban, for example, has resulted in 5.5 billion fewer plastic bags being used each year, and a 38% reduction in bag-related carbon emissions.
Overall, bans are estimated to eliminate 300 single-use bags per person, per year.
This illustrates the importance that seemingly small actions can have on our environment. Buying a reusable grocery bag is just one step people can take to reduce the amount of plastic they use. And if we can use and produce less plastic, that results in fewer fossil fuels that get burned, and less toxic, heat-trapping gases are released into our atmosphere.
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