Current practices and futuristic options in plastic waste management in Pakistan

This research determined the current understanding and concerns about plastic waste management and trends surrounding plastics use and looked into future priorities, challenges, and plastic waste management opportunities. The data were collected from observations made during visits to selected areas, structured interviews with relevant professionals, and a questionnaire filled by the stakeholders. Reliable national data on waste generation and composition that will inform effective planning on waste management in Abbottabad were absent. Data was collected about a waste generation on a regional basis, the physical composition of waste, sorting, and separation efficiency was done besides per capita of waste generation in selected households in each region. Plastic Waste (PW) quantification by weight was done on selected waste dump points in District Abbottabad. PW generation in peri-urban areas was 0.000102 t/person/day while in the urban area, it was 0.0704 t/year PW was generated. On the whole, the projected value of 59920.506t/year PW was produced by 1.5 million persons in Abbottabad annually. There is a need to redirect a large proportion of all solid waste (SW), especially PW, towards more environment-friendly recycling and recovery options. There are solutions, including material reduction, design for end-of-life recyclability, increased recycling capacity, strategies to reduce littering. Such measures will be the most effective through the public, industry, scientists, and policymakers' combined actions.