Calls for national-level alignment on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) gained momentum as policymakers, industry leaders, finance experts, development partners, and academics convened to chart Pakistan’s next steps in plastics circularity. While some territories have made steady progress on developing EPR frameworks, participants stressed that a unified national system is essential to ensure scale, efficiency, and predictable compliance for producers and recyclers.
The two-day convening, “Turning the Tide: Extended Producer Responsibility and Plastics Circularity”, organized by the CoRe Alliance, brought together more than 80 representatives from federal and provincial governments, waste management companies, environment protection agencies, State Bank of Pakistan as well as major FMCGs, recyclers, packaging companies, financial institutions, UN agencies, think tanks, academia and media. Discussions focused on policy harmonization, global lessons from the Global South, packaging innovation, social inclusion of waste workers, and green financing mechanisms for recycling infrastructure.
Giving the opening address, Senator Dr. Musadik Masood Malik, Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, said Pakistan’s waste challenge requires collective reform. “Harmonizing provincial regulations and creating the right incentives will be central to building a climate-resilient waste ecosystem. A unified approach strengthens enforcement, encourages innovation, and ensures that producers can meet their responsibilities in a transparent and efficient manner,” he said, concluding, “Injustice is unsustainable as the onus of responsibility also lies towards the west that is generating more than 80% of the world’s waste.”
While addressing the multi-stakeholder convening, Romina Khurshid Alam, Member National Assembly and Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change, and Aisha Humera, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Climate Change, both highlighted that EPR directly supports Pakistan’s climate and economic reform agenda. Circular systems reduce waste, create green jobs, and position Pakistan to attract international climate finance.
Senator Bushra Anjum Butt and Senator Dr. Afnan Ullah Khan, members of the Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environment and the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, respectively, both emphasized that predictable, long-term policies are the backbone of successful EPR models globally. They stressed that countries that have advanced circularity did so with clarity, consistency, and sustained regulatory backing inclusive to all sectors, such as textiles, fertilizers, e-waste, and telcos, etc.
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