ISLAMABAD: Chairperson of Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman on Tuesday sought a ban on the growing use of plastic covers on books, calling it an environmentally harmful and dangerously new toxic practice.

“Plastic is a forever chemical which is a huge environmental toxin. It cannot be introduced into our daily lives in a new retail endeavour to keep single use plastics in circulation when the world is discarding it,” Sherry Rehman said.

A statement issued here said advocating for her bill during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee, Sherry Rehman underscored the importance of protecting environment and public health from a toxic new trend of wrapping books routinely in plastic, despite the severe environmental and health consequences associated with plastic use.

She said plastic was known now to be the “forever chemical” that could take up to 1,000 years to fully decompose and was a major contributor to human health crises as well as environmental disasters.

The senator said: “It is a terrible hazard to public health because it chokes our rivers, storm drains landfills and coastlines, leaving more chemical and micro plastics in our food, soil, water and environment than we of the planet can sustain.”

She emphasised that booksellers and publishers must take responsibility for discouraging this habit by discontinuing the use of plastic wrapping, and urged authorities to provide a clear and reasonable time frame to book sellers to ensure the complete phase-out of plastic covers.

Citing alarming global statistics, she stated that over seven billion tonnes of plastic waste had been generated worldwide, of which only nine per cent had been recycled.

In Pakistan, the situation was even more critical, with only one per cent of plastic waste being recycled, a figure she described as dangerously low.

“If the Senate can give up plastic, then bookshops can do the same,” Senator Rehman said, underscoring the need for collective action to protect the environment.

The Senate Standing Committee unanimously passed Senator Sherry Rehman’s bill aimed at preventing the use of plastic covers on books, marking a significant step forward in Pakistan’s efforts to reduce plastic pollution and promote sustainable practices.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2026