Pakistan is a culprit like all other countries in the ongoing climate crisis. Pakistan’s waste generation statistics are alarming. In a day, 0.283 to 0.612 kg of solid waste is produced per capita, and 49.6 million tons in a year which increases by 2.4% annually. According to the Government of Pakistan’s estimation (GoP), 87,000 tons of solid waste is generated in a week in the big cities of the country.
The staggering figures for waste generation are due to a lack of public awareness, inadequate official waste management systems, a clash of political wills, a constantly changing political environment, and general disinterest in the impact of waste production and disposal. Speaking on the partnership between Phillip Morris Pakistan and the Network of Organizations Working with People with Disabilities, Pakistan (NOWPDP), Sadia Dada, Director of Communications, explained the problem correctly, “The natural environment should remain unspoiled, beautiful, and litter-free. The occurrence of littering—whether of cigarette butts or other waste—varies across the world, but, in general, it is linked to behavioral attitudes and availability of a waste disposal infrastructure. Changing the habit of littering requires action across three areas: awareness, disposal infrastructure, and social enforcement.”
A significant portion of the percentage of waste generation is owed to large cities. Karachi produces 16,500 tons of solid waste in a day, Lahore’s figures are 7,690 tons in a day, Rawalpindi generates 4,500 tons per day, and Peshawar produces 2,048 tons of solid waste every day. If municipal solid waste is to be dissected in terms of items, the breakdown would be:
Out of the total, plastic amounts to 65% of the total waste generated in Pakistan. It is estimated that 55 billion plastic bags are circulating in the country and are expected to increase by 15% annually. Visually speaking, if the plastic waste is collected and dumped together, it will rise to 16,500 m, almost equal to the height of two K2 mountains. As for food wastage, according to a study, Pakistan sees 36 million tons of food wastage every year and 40% of it is waste produced by hotels, lavish weddings, and parties. The figure is disheartening because according to the Global Hunger Index 2020, Pakistan is ranked 88 out of 132 countries, and the estimation of the World Food Programme showed that 18% of the population suffers from food shortage while 43% faces food insecurity.
Dr Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, the previous Director of the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, pointed out, “The highly mismanaged municipal solid waste disposal system in Pakistan cannot be attributed to the absence of an appropriate technology for disposal but to the fact that the system has a lot of responsibility but no authority.”
To better the country’s waste management system, there are several plans and actions in place. In 2022, Pakistan has become a part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) via the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC). Through the joint efforts of GPAP and MoCC, the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) will be formed, which is a platform where local policymakers, business people, and civil advocates will come together to formulate a framework for a circular economy. Malik Amin Aslam Khan, Minister for Climate Change, commented, “We look towards a future where Pakistan has reduced the leakage of plastic waste in the Indus River Basin by at least 50% by 2030 through a “whole of society” approach. To enable this vision, we are committed to embracing the circular economy approach in Pakistan in a holistic and sustainable way that is attentive to the needs of all who are involved in this the plastics chain. This is in complete synergy with our mandate to mainstream environment and climate change in the economically and socially vulnerable sectors of the economy and to steer Pakistan towards enabling climate-resilient development.”
To improve recycling, many official and informal efforts by organisations in the country are in the works. Saaf Suthra Sheher is one such initiative. Mehrunisa Malik, the co-founder, explained the practices of the company, “We provide trainings, resource materials and recycling infrastructure (such as colour coded, labelled bins, storage space, etc.) to our partners, and a guarantee that we will recycle or upcycle their dry waste (paper, plastics, metal, glass and Tetra Paks) using socially and environmentally ethical means.”
Another such venture is the private company called GarbageCAN which is a materials recovery facility. The founder, Ahmad Shabbar, proposed the key ideas of the company as GarbageCAN Arc: Awareness, Recycling management, and Comprehensive waste management.
Kabarri culture is quite prominent in Pakistan. Scavengers, mostly children, pick through trash sites directly and segregate recyclable material that they later sell to kabari walas, scrap dealers that clean and repurpose the material before selling them to factories, contractors, etc. Syed Ayub Qutub, executive director of Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (Piedar), explained, “Scavengers collect almost all the metal and glass, 95 percent of paper and about 60 percent of plastic waste. They are providing an environmental benefit which is largely undocumented and unrecognised.”
Despite the distressing statistics, there may be hope for Pakistan yet. An example of it would be when Coca-Cola, Pakistan and Afghanistan teamed up with Teamup and the Capital Development Authority and produced recarpeted a patch of Ataturk Avenue (a kilometre long) with repurposed plastic waste (10 tons) which cost Rs. 21 million. Fahad Ashraf, the Vice President of Coca-Cola, commented, “This idea provides a breakthrough solution to bring back plastic waste into the productive economy. And we also want to focus on building a community around the idea and the innovation itself. For any concept to be applied and adopted, the people must first believe in it, and it needs to make social and commercial sense.”
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