ARE plastic bags made up of wonder material of the 20th century, known as polyethylene a blessing or a curse? Littered and strewn in every nook and corner of cities, on roads, hanging over electric wires and over trees, these bags deface cities with an unpleasant look.

In the past few years, a never-ending campaign to ban these bags has reached its climax. Governments across the world are taking stringent regulations that include heavy taxes and fines to ban polyethylene bags altogether. Many countries have started taking measures to reduce their use. They include Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Ireland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Singapore, Bangladesh and India.

Some weeks ago, the district Nazim of Hyderabad announced a ban on trading and use of these bags from January 1, 2006 and asked the traders and consumers to look for substitutes within two months. This is not for the first time that a local or provincial government has banned these bags. Every time, the bans are announced, they are ignored as they are difficult to implement.

In the past also, campaigns to drive such bags out of business have failed. But this time, the government seems to be serious as a day after the announcement, the Sindh Governor Dr Ishrat ul Ibad decided to promulgate an ordinance regulating manufacture, sale and use of plastic bags for reasons similar to those echoed around the world; that the article is a source of nuisance, sewage system blockade and creates numerous other problems.

The ordinance will standardize the recommended size and thickness of bags. The recommended bags will not be below 30 microns and shorter than 10 x 14 inches. Manufacturers, wholesellers or retailers defying the ban would be booked and could face up to three months imprisonment or a fine of Rs30,000. The food grade PE bags, which have no undesirable effects, have been recommended as a substitute of polyethylene bags.

The efforts to ban the use of plastic bags in Sindh started in 1992 following a finding that the black coloured plastics bags for packing food material contained cancer causing agent (carcinoger). Elsewhere in the world, black bags are used for garbage or body bags.

In the year 2000, another study was conducted by a non- governmental organization. SWT working for the beautification of the city had greatly propagated the cause of banning plastic bags use and had even motivated legislators to pass a bill in the assembly in this regard. A meeting chaired by the than Governor of Sindh Air-Marshal (retd) Azim Daudpota decided to impose the ban. In the first phase, the ban was enforced in Karachi and Hyderabad.

The move irked businessmen who formed a high-powered team and met the Commissioner of Karachi to discuss the ban. He assured them despite ban, the government was in no way interested in closing down the polyethylene bags units or to create unemployment. It was interested just in resolving the issue which created environmental hazards.

Although no exact figures are available, according to rough estimates, investments in machinery, equipment, infrastructure facilities and manpower development involved in this industry is around Rs13 billion. The amount invested in imported raw materials, custom duty and taxes, warehousing, transport and other allied products is around Rs12 billion.

Another aspect of interest is the quantity of all grades of PE material being imported into Pakistan. Since the year 2000. The import of this material has shown an upward trend. In fiscal 1999-2000, a total of 126,674 metric tons was imported and within two years it inflated to 156,419 metric tons and according to the latest statistics, the import has reached a staggering level of 219,659 metric tons worth Rs8,881 million.

Interestingly, the campaign to ban the plastic bags in only limited to Sindh and that too in the two major cities of the province. Local traders and manufacturers have time and again met the concerned officials trying to convince them that a uniform policy throughout the country should be enforced or else the move would only open doors of corruption as it happened in the case of betel nuts.

Elsewhere around the world, campaigns to ban use of plastics have received mixed reactions. In some countries, the problem is not the garbage it produces but it is a pollution matter. According to environmentalists, banning plastic bags in UAE would lessen pollution. A country where 2,000 tonnes of plastics are produced monthly, environmentalists are in favour of a law to control the production of harmful plastics, and plastic bags to be replaced by biogradeable bags.

Plastic bags were recently banned in the western Indian state of Maharashtra as they choke the drainage and sewage systems. Reports say anyone using plastic bags will be fined Rs1,000. The ban is however not being implemented, and plastic bags are back on the streets.

Japan also aims to ban plastic bags and drew up a draft law in June 2005. According to an estimate by a retailer’s association, about 30.5 billion plastic shopping bags are used every year there. The Japanese Environment Ministry announced last May its decision to forbid retailers from handing out free bags. Data from a 2003 survey, conducted by the Kyoto municipal government concluded that plastic bags account for 15 per cent of residential plastics garbage.

Having said so, despite all the hue and cry and various measures to get plastic bags out of business, one thing is sure that without the plastic bags it would have been extremely difficult to blitz relief aid to the devastating October 8, earth quake areas in Pakistan where up to 70 per cent of aid was packed and sent in plastic bags.