Plastic, once celebrated as a modern marvel, has turned to become an omnipresent villain. The mountains of discarded bottles on land, floating plastic items in oceans and at beaches, and pollution from burning of plastic in the atmosphere, have suffocated the planet.
The time to overlook this menace has passed away and we must act now to stop this and embrace sustainable alternatives by recycling, reducing and reusing things. To bring attention to this issue, this year’s World Environment Day (WED) theme was focused on solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution.
FAO; together with government stakeholders at national and provincial level, civil society, academia, researchers, farmers and general public; organized a series of events on the global theme to draw attention on the issue of plastic, raise awareness to embrace sustainable alternatives especially in agriculture sector, and called for actions for combating pollution and nurturing a sustainable environment.
Different activities in this connection, such as drawings on the theme by children, awareness walks in different districts, informative sessions on sustainable use of plastic in male and female farmer and business field schools, field days for public, indigenous trees plantation drive in different districts of provinces, were organized.
All the events were characterised by awareness creation on climate change, impact of plastic on agricultural production and the environment and collective responsibility as an individual to reduce and manage plastic waste in a bid to restore and conserve the environment for generations to come.  
These activities were conducted under different ongoing projects, including Transforming the Indus Basin with Climate-resilient Agriculture and Water Management funded by Green Climate Fund, Growth for Rural Advancement and Sustainable Progress funded by the European Union and Implemented by International Trade Centre through FAO and other partners, & Strengthening Resilience of Agro-Pastoralists in Sindh funded by the European Union.  
The activities were conducted in different provinces of Pakistan; especially Umerkot, Sanghar and Tharparkar districts of Sindh and Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan and Muzaffarabad districts in Punjab.
The masses were informed about the damaging consequences of plastic pollution, including the destruction of ecosystems, contamination of water bodies, and harm to wildlife.
The emphasis was given on the urgency of adopting sustainable practices to tackle this global challenge effectively. The farmers were trained on how to dispose of the plastics items in their surroundings after use and avoid single time use plastics items like shopping bags etc.
The activities were successful and facilitated awareness and exchange of knowledge on the danger of plastic to the agri-food systems and ignited renewed commitments on the fight against plastic pollution.