Symphony Environmental Technologies plc (LON:SYM) has welcomed news that the authorities in Pakistan's Sindh province are to get tough on polluters.
Reports from Pakistan indicate that the Supreme Court of the Sindh Province has ordered the government to enforce The Sindh Environmental Protection Act and that the police have been directed to take action against those who violate it.
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The legislation prohibits any person from importing, manufacturing, stockpiling, trading, supplying, distributing or selling any scheduled plastic product that is non-degradable.
Symphony, which has developed a biodegradable plastics additive (dw2), noted that the scheduled plastic products in the Sindh province, which includes Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, must be oxo-biodegradable. Furthermore, the pro-degradant used must be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
"This is another important step-forward for Symphony's d2w oxo-biodegradable plastic technology, which is a pro-degradant approved for use in Sindh Province,” declared Michael Laurier, the chief executive officer of Symphony.
“Oxo-biodegradable technology must now be used for all types of flexible plastic packaging and disposable plastic products made of polythene and polypropylene and used for food and non-food items. The provincial roll-out and enforcement of legislation in Pakistan requiring the use of oxo-biodegradable plastic products has been slow and we are delighted that Sindh Province is now taking this more robust approach," Laurier said.
Legislation making it mandatory to switch to oxo-biodegradable plastic has also been passed elsewhere in Pakistan, including Islamabad (population of around 2mln); Azad Jammu & Kashmir (population circa 4.0 million), and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (population circa 30.5 million), in addition to Sindh Province (population circa 47.9 million).