The situation now, however, is starkly different; the most obvious change being is in the use of shopping bags. And no one knows more than us Pakistanis what a nuisance they are!

Shopping bags being used these days are not just the biodegradable variety or made of recycled materials. Most shops and supermarkets either charge you for a shopping bag, or don't offer it to you till you ask for one, or sell the reusable kind which boldly advise you to re-use them over and over again. I too now see myself taking old bags with me for grocery shopping because the system that has been created is such that without anyone saying anything you feel guilty asking for plastic bags at the till. The times that I do forget to take old bags with me, I find myself meekly and quietly requesting them, as if it were almost a crime to do so and people around me would judge me for my callousness! The government is playing its part in encouraging recycling through a kerbside collection recycling scheme which, at present, over 65 per cent households have access to.

A few days after moving to my new flat I found two rolls of garbage bags been thrown in through the letter hole. The black ones I read were for collecting paper and the green ones for green refuse such as mowed grass and leaves. The bags are collected every alternate week along with rest of the garbage. My effort is required in separating the items.

Every product/packaging has a sign stating whether it is recyclable or not — making it easier to determine what can be recycled —and those that that have been manufactured from recycled materials proudly proclaim so. It most certainly does take the effort to separate the waste into categories and separate bags but I can assuredly say that it feels good to do it. Since jumping on the recycling bandwagon, I have realised that I have two bin bags worth of paper and one bin bag of plastic items ready for recycling every fortnight! I feel scared to think how much paper that could have been recycled, I have thrown away all my life in Pakistan that simply got burnt and evaporated into a cloud of carbon dioxide only to come back and haunt me and my future generations at a later date, not too far away.
There is really no better time than during a recession to inculcate environment friendly habits amongst people. In the UK it is estimated that each household throws away over a tonne of waste annually. But what is newsworthy is that over 70 per cent of it has the potential to be recycled. Unfortunately, despite increased awareness and government schemes only 14 per cent is actually recycled.

According to WWF, solid waste generation in Pakistan ranges between 0.283 to 0.612 kg/capita/day and the waste generation growth rate is 2.4 per cent per year. In a country like ours, where garbage collection itself is still a big problem, recycling, to be frank and honest, is a thought very far from the minds of the people and the government. But what can certainly be learnt from the UK model is to minimise use of certain materials, especially shopping bags.
In the name of cost reduction businesses large and small can easily deny handing out shopping bags or expect customers to pay for them which will inevitably decrease their demand. It doesn't take much to carry light items to the car or home in ones hands.

I remember shop keepers in Karachi looking at me awkwardly every time I refused a shopping bag but once I explained to them my motivation behind the act they would agree and seem impressed. This is something we don't need to wait for the government to do something about, we can start playing our part today.

The option of paper recycling is also easily available to us in the form of the local 'kabarias' frequenting almost every locality, especially in urban areas. While this may not be enough we can argue but we have to accept that when it comes to environmental protection, every little bit helps.