Minister urges students, traders to join efforts to eliminate use of plastic bags.

ISLAMABAD -- Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir on Friday called upon educational institutions and business communities to join the government's efforts to eliminate environmentally harmful polythene bags.

'As long as people are not sensitised and warned of negative impacts of polythene bags to their health and environment and provided alternative bags, they are unlikely to shun its use,' the state minister said at events held in F-7 Markaz and in D-13 to create awareness of negative impact of plastic bags.

'Schools and business communities can discourage the people from using polythene bags at all levels,' the state minister Zartaj Gul said.

She pointed out that various public awareness and outreach initiatives had been made over the last several weeks as part of revival of activities to discourage polythene bags use.

'With improved understanding about devastating impact of the polythene bags on both environment and public health, we now hope people will respond to the government efforts,' Zartaj Gul said.

The Ministry of Climate Change in support of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), Islamabad city administration and trade unions organised the events for engaging the educational institutions in the war on polythene bags.

'While these polythene bags are non-biodegradable, they take around a hundred years to decompose. They lead to a lot of waste that keeps amassing over the years and remain in the land and water bodies, which contributes to soil and water pollution,' the state minister said.

Initiatives had been made to bring together and encourage all stakeholders including industrialists, representatives of businesses and trade organisations to back the government's measures aimed at ridding the environment of...