AFTER days of negotiations, UN-brokered efforts for agreement on a new plastics treaty collapsed on Friday. The failure of what was meant to be the most important environmental treaty since the Paris Agreement is sad and terrifying, adversely affecting all people and our planet. At the very least, this dismal outcome should spark fresh conversations about plastic production and pollution, including in Pakistan.
The world is now producing 460 million tons of plastic each year (of which only nine per cent is recycled), and the OECD predicts that plastic use will triple by 2060. Calls to cap plastic production were rejected by oil-producing countries that hope to feed the global hunger for plastics (99pc of which are derived from fossil fuels) and reap profits in a world otherwise turning towards renewables and EVs. Other controversial topics included implementation finance for developing countries and more restrictions on the use of chemicals in plastic production.
Pakistan’s climate minister reportedly called for developed economies to stop treating countries like Pakistan as “junkyards” for plastic waste, demanding more green financing for emerging economies and proposing plastic credits.
Pakistan must remain a strong voice at international fora focused on environmental issues and climate change. On the same day the plastics treaty hit an impasse, more than 220 people were killed in flash flooding in KP and Gilgit-Baltistan, the latest climate change-related tragedy in our extremely climate-vulnerable country. Lest the link between a flash flood and the collapse of the plastics treaty remain unclear: fossil fuel consumption in the production of plastics exacerbates global climate change, and the resulting frequency and intensity of climate-related natural disasters.
Pakistan is among the 10 largest producers of plastic waste.
But the climate minister’s indignation masked the reality of the plastic skeletons in the national closet. Pakistan is among the 10 largest producers of plastic waste, generating 2.6m tons of plastic waste each year. As of 2020, we were using 55 billion single-use plastic bags each year. Pakistan also imports up to 80,000 tons of hazardous waste annually.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Pakistan), 86pc of our plastic waste is mismanaged (think landfill leaching toxins into groundwater, burning plastic sullying urban air, beaches littered with plastic bottles, the Indus rushing macro-plastics into the Arabian Sea). Less than 10pc is recycled.
There is also a social cost. Almost half of the waste dumped in the country’s landfills is meant to be sorted by informal waste pickers, who are poorly compensated, exposed to hazardous materials and who often include women and children. Their plight sits alongside the broader societal challenges linked to widespread plastic pollution, including severe health implications (disrupted hormonal and reproductive systems, lung disease, cancer, etc) and disruptions to food systems.
Despite all this and our robust participation in the talks, Pakistan is unlikely to give up plastics any time soon, especially considering the economics. In 2020, there were more than 11,000 plastic processing and manufacturing companies in the country, contributing 15pc to GDP as well as 15pc of national tax revenues that year. More than 500,000 workers are directly employed in the plastics manufacturing sector. And with national plastic demand growing by 15pc each year, one can assume these numbers are increasing.
Rather than posture in the hope of attracting green finance, Pakistan needs to seriously rethink its relationship with plastic. On paper, we are headed in the right direction — we joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership in 2022 and launched a National Action Roadmap to Reduce Plastic Pollution this year, which commits to reducing mismanaged waste by over 75pc by 2040.
But in the case of plastic pollution, intentions must be judged by actions. For example, repeated efforts to ban single-use plastic bags have faltered due to weak enforce-
ment, a lack of public awareness on the harms of plastic pollution, the fragmentation of plastic policies and legal frameworks at federal and provincial levels, and the paucity of affordable, practical alternatives (admittedly, more recent bans, such as the one in Islamabad, have met with greater success).
Pakistan should go back to basics, ready for a sustainable approach to plastics. To start, we need an approach to waste collection that is consistently applied across the country, including an expansion of collection services and facilities for sorting and treating waste. Then come plans for recycling, disposal, upcycling, zero waste. Our road to less plastic pollution is long, and sadly strewn with PET packaging, plastic bags and bottles.
The writer is a political and integrity risk analyst.
X: @humayusuf
Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025