In northern mountains, plastic bags face the bin

In this district in northern part of country flanked by soaring mountain ranges and glaciers, plastic shopping bags are now illegal. In late April, the provincial government banned their "use, purchase, export or import" in an effort to cut plastic waste and pollution, and rolled out first deliveries of cloth shopping bags. Now those hang in shops, and many customers have started bringing bags from home - though not everyone is happy with the change.
"The use of plastic bags is not only handy, but also very cheap as compared to cloth and paper bags," said Ikram Jamal, a trader in the city's main market.
"It is a challenge for customers as well as for traders to instantly ban plastic bags, amid the lack of availability of an alternate option," he said, noting only a limited supply of cloth bags was so far available.
But 50-year-old Shamim Bagum, a shopper in the market, said she was adjusting.
"After shopkeepers refused to give us polythene bags, I now myself bring a cloth bag to take groceries home," she said.
Carrying cloth bags for all shopping can be a challenge, but people need to obey the government's decision, she said.
Around the world, cities, regions and countries are trying to cut back on plastic waste, banning the use of items such as throw-away plastic shopping bags and drinking straws.
The pioneers of the movement, however, are not just in richer nations, but in many developing ones as well, from Tanzania to Bangladesh and now Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region, the country's northernmost territory.
Hunza was the first district in Pakistan to ban plastic shopping bags, said Malik Amin Aslam, the prime minister's adviser on climate change. But the bans are now spreading, with Punjab province and the city of Quetta now outlawing bags as well, and Islamabad set to do the same in August. In Hunza, the provincial government worked with the Gilgit-Baltistan Environmental Protection Agency and the Karakoram Area Development Organization to launch the pilot ban, which aims to clean up the narrow, mountain-flanked valley that attracts more than half a million tourists a year.
The scenic Karakoram Highway, which connects Pakistan with China, runs through the district. At least some tourists stopping in Hunza said they thought the bag ban was a good idea. "The shopkeeper declined to give me plastic bag when I purchased a bottle of mineral water from his shop in a market in Hunza. This is a positive change," said 30-year Ishtiaq Bhatti, visiting Hunza's Sikandarabad village from Lahore.