I delivered this presentation on World Environment Day-2023 at Marriott Hotel, Islamabad Pakistan. I take this opportunity to thank the Marriott Islamabad management for oeganizing the event. Please feel free to download and use this presentation.

1. World Environment Day-2023
Marriot Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan
Sollution to the Plastic Pollution
Zabardast Khan Bangash

2. What is at Stake?

20. World Environment Day 2023
Solution to the Plastic Pollution

21. Life Cycle of Plastic Products

23. Excessive use of plastic material
Population growth & urbanization
Plastic is cheap & affordable
Plastic products of daily usage
Low rate of decomposition
Improper disposal of plastic wastes
Shipping Industry
Excessive use of single-use plastic
Trash dumps
Major
Causes
of
plastic
Pollution

24. Types of Plastics-Key Definitions
Polymer: are natural or synthetic materials made of long,
repeating chains of molecules (monomers).
Microplastic: a fragment of plastic that is typically 5 mm or less
in length. feedstock: raw materials that are used as the building
blocks for future plastic products.
Single-use plastic: plastic products that are used once and
thrown away. Examples include food packaging, bottles, straws,
and bags.

25.  Only 9% of all plastic produced is recycled
The Guardian, an estimated 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s
 A whopping 2 million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide
 Every minute of every day a truckload of plastic is dumped into the the ocean
 73% of beach litter worldwide is plastic.
 One million plastic bottles are bought every minute
 There could be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050
Key Facts

27. https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updat
es/plastic-pollution-around-the-world/

28. https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/resources/updates/plastic-pollution-around-the-world/

30. An overview of the sources of microplastics, their implications and migration pathways [adapted from ref. 21, Copyright the Royal Society of Chemistry].
IMPACTS
&
Mitigation
Pathways

35. What the World is Doing?
Basel Convention(Adopted 1989-Came into Force 1999)
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global
environmental treaty on hazardous and other wastes. It has 170 member
countries (Parties) and aims to protect human health and the environment
against the adverse effects resulting from the generation, management,
transboundary movements and disposal of hazardous and other wastes.

36. Basel Convention & Way Forward Towards Beating The Plastic Pollution

37. Pakistan
Where Do We Stand?
 National Hazardous
Waste Management
Policy- June 2022
 Various SROs to ban
plastic bags

39. Way Forward to the Solutions

40. Solutions must Focus on:
 preventing harm wherever it could occur in the plastic life cycle;
 Account for plastics as end-products and the thousands of additives
used to make them;
 Strive to eliminate exposure to all hazardous materials along
plastic’s whole life cycle;
 Ensure access to information regarding the chemical substances in
products and processes;
 Increase independent research to fill existing and future knowledge
gaps on the health harms from the full life cycle of plastic;

41. Build on transparency across the supply chain especially
regarding exposure to hazardous materials;
Assess possible health and environmental impacts of
technologies touted as “solutions,” such as incineration
and plastic-to-fuel technologies;
Integrate the right to meaningful participation in
decision- making about plastic-related risks;
Guarantee access to justice when and where harm
occurs.

42. Actions we can take may include:
 Start from the beginning: Many people (even
policymakers) don’t know about the health impacts of
plastics, so we often have to educate first.
 Share information and raise awareness on toxics and their
impact across the whole life cycle of plastic.
 Build capacity for individual and collective action among
all people in a given community.
 Embolden and empower people.

43.  Place blame where it belongs: on manufacturers.
 Avoid blaming consumers for their individual behaviour.
 Focus instead on collective action for systemic solutions
and change. For instance: advocate for reusable and
refillable systems rather than alternative kinds of single use
plastic.
 Speak out about the need for health information
disclosures about products and their packaging.

45. Lifecycle
Approach
to Fight
Plastic
Pollution

50. THANK YOU