Lahore: World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Pakistan) has reached out to ragpickers and waste dealers in a bid to create a ‘Pakistan without waste’, a news source reported. The international organisation joined hands with a beverage company to carry out its very first inclusive approach for facilitating key stakeholders to eradicate waste from the country.
WWF Pakistan would be conducting a scoping study about the consumption, collection, and disposal pattern of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles in the country. The study would also quantify the amount of PET that is recycled. The organisation would also conduct an analysis of the public’s awareness level on plastic pollution.
For the pursuit of this study, two interactive stakeholder consultative workshops were organised in Karachi and Lahore recently. The aim of these workshops was to create collaboration among ragpickers, waste dealers, and recyclers both in the formal and informal sectors. With these workshops, WWF Pakistan also expects to identify gaps, improve efficiency of collection and recycling, and spread public awareness about plastic pollution.
During the workshop, WWF Pakistan Energy & Water Climate Director Dr Masood Arshad stated that it is significant to focus on post-consumer packaging and recycling. He added that for this purpose, companies in public and private sectors, and formal and informal waste sectors need to work together.
The workshops concluded on discussion with the waste scavengers and dealers in order to understand their issues, and establish action items for the next step in forming relations with them.
