Rawalpindi: The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday banned the use of polythene bags; giving malls and shops in the province a two-week deadline (Aug 31) to phase out their usage, according to a news report. This ban is applicable on malls, departmental stores, bakeries, and retail shops, and entails a curfew on all polythene and oxo-biodegradable bags usage.
The shops have been asked to phase out these bags by August 31, or they face the prospect of facing legal consequences. Reportedly, the authorities started implementing this ban after August 20, when the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered them to do so in response to the previous ban on the manufacture, use, and sale of these bags on March 20.
The LHC issued this ban earlier, but notified the Rawalpindi chapter of the EPA on Thursday. It has further issued notices in this regard to all the authorities concerned — with the ban on such bags expected to be extended to Gujranwala, Multan, Sialkot, and Sheikhupura in the initiative’s first phase. Under the Environment Protection Ordinance 2002, people are henceforth not allowed to use polythene bags thinner than 15 microns. The LHC decided to extend this ban to all kinds of bags, and ordered polythene bag manufacturing units to be sealed as well.
