Environment Protection Department Punjab has decided to increase the thickness of polythene bags from 15 micron to 50 micron in order to discourage the use of lightweight and low thickness polythene bags. The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Environment Protection Department Secretary Asad Rehman Gillani here on Wednesday. Director General EPA Tanveer Jabbar, UET Professor Dr Yasir Gill, Senior Scientific Officer PCSIR Laboratories Dr Saira Taj, Director General WWF Hammad Naqi, President Plastic Bags Manufacturer Association Major Sharif Raja and other concerned officials also attended the meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Asad Gillani said that we use plastic bags because they are convenient. However, the convenience of these plastic bags come at a very high cost to the environment and negatively affects human health. Countries around the world have begun banning the use of plastic bags while some have enforced restricted laws against the use of plastic bags because of the negative effects of their usage. He said that the use of polythene bag is one of the major causes of environmental pollution. Keeping this in mind, the government has decided to ban the use of plastic bags in the Federal Capital territory from 14thAugust this year. Likewise, the Punjab government is also considering the same but in a phased manner. “The the decision to increase the thickness of polythene bags from 15 microns to 50 micron will help in this regard,” he added. He emphasized that the sole purpose behind all this is to protect the environmental pollution and not to hurt the people attached with this industry.
