Talking trash

Islamabad needs to get cleaned up and get green and smart if it wants to continue to uphold the self-annointed title of Beautiful Islamabad. All I think about is how trashed it is when I see overflowing and stinking dumpsters. There is rubbish and plastic littering markets and streets and green belts. So often, you'll see plastic bags stuck in tree branches, billowing in the wind. During my neighbourhood evening walks, I am struck by how much trash is merely visible along the pavement. Small polythene bags and juice boxes and shiny pieces of biscuit wrappers are nudged in flower beds and in overgrown bushes. The green belt is a unkempt and one merely has to walk through it to see overwhelming amount of trash, hidden and partially visible amongst leaves, twigs, grasses, bushes, and weeds. The prominent areas of Islamabad are perfectly manicured and kept clean but the trash in neighbourhoods is painfully visible now. 

Is there more plastic now? Is single use plastic the culprit? Why are there so many plastic bags littered everywhere? Are there more folks living in Islamabad? 

For everything you buy at a shop, they bag it for you in plastic bag. Even if you go and buy chaat, it shall be served in a small plastic container with a plastic spoon and wrapped up in little plastic bag. 

It's just piling up. 

Where does it go? 

In the lush green public parks, I feel scandalised at how casually groups or individuals drop litter. How lazy do you have to be? How ignorant do you have to be? What premium does the city administration put on instilling respect and a sense of civic respect in the residents of Islamabad?

But even more important is the question: where does the trash end up? Does it get dumped in land fills? Where does our sewage go? Does our garbage actually get safely disposed? Do we recycle anything? How sustainable is this with a growing population and rampant consumerism?