• Market visit shows eco-friendly alternatives ‘too expensive’ for most consumers
• Expert casts doubt on govt efforts to enforce ban on one-time use plastic bags
• Officials concede lack of swift enforcement measures due to legal challenges

KARACHI: Walk into Khori Garden Market near M.A. Jinnah Road — one of the city’s wholesale hubs — on any given morning, one can find bundles of one-time use polythene bags openly available for sale behind counters and at roadside stalls despite a province-wide ban imposed by the Sindh government since June 2025 on all types of plastic shopping bags.

The ban was imposed to reduce environmental pollution and prevent drain blockages.

The government wanted to encourage the public to adopt environmentally friendly alternatives to polythene bags due to their harmful impacts on environment, including threats to marine and terrestrial ecosystems.

Since the ban has been imposed, it has been observed that the city’s supermarkets, clothing outlets and major sweet shops have started using and delivering their products in eco-friendly carrier bags, for which they charge an additional amount.

However, a large number of retailers are still using single-use polythene bags, which can be seen on roads and streets and carried by people traveling on bikes or in cars.

When Dawn visited the congested Khori Garden Market and tried to speak with traders, most were reluctant to say anything.

However, one shopkeeper, who sells various types of plastic bags, including those used for packaging, medical purposes, garbage and transparent polythene bags, acknowledged that no recent effort was made by authorities to enforce the ban.

“When the ban was imposed last year, strict action was taken by government departments largely for optics,” he claimed, adding that officials conducting raids often lacked the knowledge to differentiate between permitted and prohibited types of bags.

He claimed that there were no viable alternatives available, and even where some existed, they were too expensive for the general public to afford.

He said in Saudi Arabia transparent polythene bags were also used, but were rarely seen littering streets. The real issue, he argued, was the “ineffective collection and management of waste”.

Less than a year ago, the Sindh Environment Department had issued a notification imposing a complete ban on “non-degradable, oxo-degradable, black-coloured and recycled plastic bags”, stating that their manufacture, storage, sale and use would be strictly prohibited across the province.

According to official data, provided by the Sindh environment secretary, the department has conducted “awareness visits” to 712 wholesalers, malls, and retailers across Sindh since the ban was imposed while 193 of the visits were made in Karachi alone.

Some 519 visits were conducted in other districts, including, Larkana, Sukkur, Shaheed Banazirabad, Mirpurkhas and Hyderabad.

The purpose of these visits, an official of the department told Dawn in a written statement, was to sensitise stakeholders about the legal restrictions on plastic bags and encourage the adoption of eco-friendly alternatives such as cloth bags and other biodegradable material.

However, in response to the question that how many violators had actually been prosecuted since the ban was introduced, the department said the legal action had been taken against five violators across Sindh.

“The process of shutdown and imposition of penalties has been delayed due to legal challenges against the government’s ban on plastic bags. Manufacturing units have contested in various district courts as well as before the High Court. Consequently, enforcement actions such as sealing of units, imposition of fines, and other regulatory measures cannot be carried out swiftly, as they are subject to judicial scrutiny and compliance with court directives,” the written statement added.

On the question of why polythene bags remain openly available in major markets, the environment department blamed cross-provincial smuggling and illegal imports across the Pakistan-Iran border.

In response to a question about what alternatives the government has provided or available subsidises for shopkeepers, the department said that on behalf of the government, the Sindh Environment Protection Authority had carried out a public awareness and outreach initiative by distributing cloth bags or tote bags at various shopping malls and public places.

It added the activity was “aimed at promoting the use of environmentally friendly alternatives to polythene bags, encouraging behavioural change among the general public, and supporting the effective implementation of the ban on plastic bags. The initiative also helped raise awareness about the harmful environmental impacts of plastic waste, including pollution and threats to marine and terrestrial ecosystems”.

To enforce the government writ, district-wise committees were constituted, the department claimed, adding that each was headed by the respective district in-charge, while assistance was also sought from local government authorities to ensure effective implementation of the ban on plastic bags.

Drive against plastic bags

While showing a large quantity of seized plastic bags lying on the premises of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) head office, a senior official of KMC’s anti-encroachment cell claimed that the department regularly carries out operations against sellers of polythene bags across the metropolis and confiscates “tonnes of plastic bags on a weekly basis”.

He added that last year his team, working in coordination with the enforcement cell, had confiscated large quantities of plastic bags that were not environmentally friendly. However, due to a lack of storage space, the seized items were disposed of by “burying them underground”, the official added.

Expressing concerns, the official said that after the seizures, the environment department had been verbally informed regarding how and where the bags should be disposed of, but so far no response has been received and no proper mechanism has been put in place.

The official also admitted that most members of the raiding teams lacked the knowledge to distinguish between environmentally friendly and non-friendly bags, and therefore they only confiscated as many bags as they could.

He claimed that biodegradable bags were returned to applicants who approached the department to reclaim their seized items.

Expert view

Environment expert Yasir Darya said that the ban has never been effectively implemented in Karachi or across the province or in any place, with limited success seen only in Islamabad after overcoming several obstacles. He added that the government has not shown seriousness in enforcement and, being “authoritarian” in approach, it only attempted to impose restrictions without adequately engaging traders and manufacturers of polythene products.

He added that waste management remained a persistent issue everywhere, but achieving a “green” environment required reducing waste to near zero.

Referring to viable enforcement models, he said the use of biodegradable materials and other alternatives was the key.

Citing an example from the NED University, he said a professor had developed a material as thin as polythene that was not plastic but derived from natural sources and biodegradable. Such solutions, he said, are already available, and the entire packaging industry should transition to greener alternatives.

Materials that are not collected and ultimately end up in soil and rivers should be banned, he added.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2026