BADIN: Rag-pickers whose livelihood is dependent on recycling factories
are facing hardships across the province after a ban and the sealing of recycling and cardboard factories by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa).
Cardboard and recycling factories had been sealed in Hyderabad and Kotri di
stricts on the pretext of violation of law and regulations. These factories had failed to install treatment plants to control pollution.
The rag-pickers earn their livelihood
by collecting scrap and other waste material and later selling it
to recycle factories. The closure of cardboard and recycling factories would increase unemployment in the country. Over a hundred shops deal with recycle stuff alone in Di
strict Badin. Meanwhile, the former president of Peoples Labour Union, Di
strict Badin, Mohammad Iqbal said that members of over a 1,000 poo
r families were engaged in the picking up of cardboards and other waste materials are affected due to the closure of these recycling and cardboard factories in the di
strict.