Plastic manufacturing units in Pindi jeopardising public health

Emissions cause breathing difficulties for residents

ISLAMABAD: Plastic manufacturing units, which have been set up in the residential areas of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are jeopardising public health.

Taha Malik, a resident of Mohallah Raja Sultan in Rawalpindi, told the media that his family and his neighbours have been directly affected by a plastic shoe recycling plant operating near their home.

"The plant is operating in the centre of the neighbourhood behind the Government Post-Graduate College near Asghar Mall in Rawalpindi. It operates in the morning and the afternoon per a fixed pattern," Malik said, adding, “The doors are locked from the outside to make it seem like the property has been abandoned but inside, machines start crushing plastic shoes," he added. The unit, he said. is a potential source of dengue larvae but has not been inspected by the authorities because its gates are closed.

"Emissions from the plant are so pungent and suffocating that the elderly and the young have started to suffer from breathing problems," he said.

Malik added that sounds made by the machine as it crushes the plastic shoes have become unbearable and together with the air pollution it causes, it has become intolerable.

"It has made us sick," he stated.

When contacted, the Punjab Environment Protection Department (EPD) Rawalpindi Deputy Director Amin Baig said that the plants were violating the law and are obligated to ensure a clean environment.

To a question, he said the court can impose fines on the plastic units after proper inspection of the site.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2019.