lant waste can be turned into fertilizers, while plastic waste should be burned in hospital incinerators
PESHAWAR: Proper solid waste management is important for the environment, water and community health. With increasing tourism, the production of solid waste will also increase. Unfortunately, Pakistan does not have a proper solid waste management policy and instead solid waste is dumped in and near water ways or burned openly. This is quite dangerous as leaching of chemicals from waste, air pollution, smog, disposal of biohazard waste and pollution in tourist locations are already regularly heard problems?
The Ministry of Climate Change can take the initiative to create a policy specific to Pakistan’s requirements on solid waste management. The proper policy should also include those poor people that gather recyclable material from waste. These people are called scavengers and they help in reducing the solid waste of cities and increase recycling in Pakistan while also earning a living for them.
I would suggest that the government create living quarters and a school in every city for scavengers. The adults should be hired on a basic pay and children asked to go to school to avail the living quarters. The scavengers should be given safety, clothes and should be allowed to gather all the recyclables that they can sell for their own profit. They should be also tasked to separate the remaining waste into four categories, plant waste, construction waste, plastic waste and all other waste.
Municipal city vehicles can then collect the separated waste and deal with it accordingly. Plant waste can be turned into fertilizers, while plastic waste should be burned in hospital incinerators to avoid long transportation cost, since they don’t decompose naturally. Construction waste and all other waste should be buried at a site away from waterways and humans, under proper standards and procedures. Such a policy would not only help the very poor strata of the society, but will help reduce solid waste in Pakistan and the problems associated with it.
Shahryar Khan Baseer
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2020.
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