LAHORE, Sept 19: The enforcement of a ban on plastic bags will be extremely difficult because of a likely resistance from its manufacturers, according to the Environment Department of the City District Government Lahore (CDGL).

A source within the CDGL said the bags have a “high convenience value” and any move to ban their use, manufacturing or distribution would be met with stiff resistance. He said the present regulations, in which black bags were banned (because of their toxic qualities when burnt or heated) and a minimum thickness of 15 microns were robust enough and were due to be strengthened regardless of the verdict handed down by the Lahore High Court on Wednesday.

He said according to the Prohibition Manufacturing Black Polythene and Polythene Less than 15 micron Thickness Ordinance 2002, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has delegated its powers to the assistant director, the district officer and the deputy district officer to enforce the ordinance and lease with plastic bag manufacturers' trade unions.

He said the CDGL district officer was reluctant to enforce LHC’s verdict because the CDGL defended the manufacturing of polythene bags.

He said any ban would lead to an upswing the use of paper bags which had their own drawbacks, such as deforestation. "Every solution has an accompanied problem which must be managed," he said. Environment DO Tariq Zaman told Dawn the CDGL would take action against the manufacturer of the polythene bags after the detailed verdict of the LHC. He said that a multi-million rupee industry could not be closed immediately because thousands employees earned from it.

Prof AR Saleemi, chemical engineering department chairman of the University of Engineering and Technology, who helped the EPD draft its plastic bag regulations, said: “We need regulation, collection, and a clear strategy throughout Pakistan.” He said banning plastic bags entirely would be counter-productive because people would instead switch to paper-bags. Asked whether paper bags could simply be recycled in order to reduce deforestation, he said, according to the results of a study he had carried out on the issue, the energy-cost of recycling paper bags was high and recycled paper bags were expensive. – ISSAM AHMED