Have you ever played hockey on a busy road dodging vehicles and pedestrians intent and focused on the opponents goal where you want to lodge the ball at all cost? I do that nearly every day and on every road in the city of Karachi but the only difference is that I am not chasing any ball but constantly dodging plastic bags that in all parts of the city suddenly appear and as if by intent dash towards the vehicles underside and wheels and if you are not watchful would stick to the belly of your vehicle to cause accidents of many types the most common being catching fire as they come into close contact with the hot underside of your car or wrapping themselves around the wheels of a motorcycle to generate fatal falls resulting in unnecessary loss of life.
I have experienced this personally as some years back when I had just acquired a new car and was coming back from the airport after dropping off a guest that near the Naval offices near hockey stadium a car came alongside and the driver shouted that the underside of my car was on fire. I immediately stopped and some fine young man from Pak Navy came to my rescue dousing the small fire with fire extinguishers.
Guess who the culprit was? Yes a plastic bag that had wrapped itself in the underside of my car and caught fire due to the heat generated. From that day it has become my habit to keep a lookout for plastic bags and as they advance with the wind towards whatever vehicle I am driving to dodge them. If I cannot dodge myself out of their constantly moving trajectories forcing me to drive over them I keep looking at the rear view mirror to see that I have left them on the road and they are not stuck to the belly of the vehicle I am driving.
What I am experiencing is nothing compared to what the world is experiencing and is threatened because of these plastic entities. Every now and then we hear about the fatal consequences of plastic and its unhindered use in the country. Loud announcements are made prohibiting the use of plastic bags but only after a short pause they are back in the market and roaming around our neighborhoods.
The spread of plastics also continues globally. According to a research scientist, worldwide more than 100,000 plastic bags are used every minute. This comes to a total of 500 billion plastic bags used annually. The vast majority of plastic produced has either ended up in landfills or polluting the environment, with only 9% of it being recycled.
The present condition of our seas is dangerous; by 2025, there may be one ton of plastic for every 3 ton of fish, and by 2050 there may be a marginal difference between plastic and fish. The yearly average cost of aquatic damage is near to $13 billion.
The greatest harm that plastic bags inflict is on aquatic animal life. Tens of thousands of whales, birds, seals and turtles are killed every year from plastic bag litter in the marine environment. Marine animals often mistake plastic bags for food and as plastic bags are stark replicas of jelly fish they are eagerly eaten specially by whales and turtles and end up in their bellies putting an end to their life.
Plastic bags, once ingested, cannot be digested or passed by an animal so it stays in the gut. Plastic in an animal’s gut can prevent food digestion and can lead to a very slow and painful death. Do the people making these plastic bags even have the knowledge that their product is inflicting such harm on innocent marine life and subjecting them to such a torturous death?
Every now and then someone in the concerned quarters wakes up to the dangers of plastic bags. Campaigns are launched informing people of the harm plastic can cause and declaring the banning of use of plastic bags with immediate effect with grave consequences for those who violate this order. Sounds very good but alas there is no implementation and plastic bags continue to be used by all and sundry. I am still dodging plastic bags on the road and if anything their numbers are growing with each passing day.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025