INSTEAD of destroying confidential papers by setting them on fire and throwing the ashes into the garbage, modern environment-friendly techniques should be used. The routine practice only contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and that is surely not an environment-friendly act. All government departments should be more sensible in this regard, especially because they have big budgets for almost anything they do. And they have a lot of paper to destroy.

Being a chemical engineer, I and my team employ a recycling technique to use paper as many as five times. We use techniques such as pulping the sensitive documents by placing them in a large trash can and treating them with bleach, which decolours and breaks the paper.

On a large scale, we have built a locked warehouse where these shredded papers are placed next to the mixed paper recycling bin. In the end, these confidential papers are transported to recycling industries.

In Pakistan, there are about 100 units in the organised and unorganised sectors where we supply paper for reuse. There is no reason why others cannot do this.

Saeedulhassan
Lahore

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2022