Plastic bags to be banned in Islamabad: NA body

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change on Friday said soon a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) would be issued to ban plastic shopping bags in Islamabad, ARY News reported.

“The ban on plastic shopping bags will be imposed phase-wise,” the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change chaired by Munaza Hassan in Islamabad decided.

While briefing the committee, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said 70 brick kilns were shut down in the federal capital for spreading pollution.

The EPA officials said 300 brick kilns had been transferred to zig-zag technology.

On this occasion, the chairperson of the Climate Change Committee barred from issuing hard copy of agenda of the body’s meeting. She said the agenda will be e-mailed to the committee members.

Read More: New Zealand to ban single-use plastic bags

In August last year, New Zealand had become the latest country to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a “meaningful step” towards reducing pollution.

New Zealand uses “hundreds of millions” of single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life, Ardern had said.

“We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start,” she had said.