768.1 million (plastic) water bottles were consumed in 2015 in the UAE, a country with one of the highest consumption rates of bottled water in the world. In Dubai, alone, there are at least hundreds of different brands, some of which cost more than 1,000 times the price of regular tap water.

Plastic bottles leach toxins into human tissue and discarded plastics on land and in the oceans are decimating wildlife that eat non-biogradable plastics.

So to tackle this environmental menace of  increasing use of plastic through plastic water bottles, a new eco campaign was launched yesterday in Dubai. Campaign dubbed 'Drop it'is urging consumers and businesses to drop plastic water bottles in favour of glass receptacles that can be refilled with in-house filtered tap water as a much safer alternative for the human body and the environment.

This campaign wants individuals and companies to install a variety of filters on taps in homes and office towers to help people refill their glass bottles every day.

The idea is to empower companies . It starts from the top and goes down. When you have big brands saying we're going to stop using plastics, people think and get inspired.

Members who sign up for the campaign, can ask a 'Drop it' water consultant to visit and assess at no charge their home or company. Then a choice of different filter technologies can be selected by the user.

Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Ali Bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, a member of the Ajman ruling family who is known as the Green Shaikh, lent his support to the launch of this campaign.

Refusing to use plastic water bottles will require a major shift in people's thinking but a new trend of personal environmental stewardship for the environment and health needs to happen now to spur action.

We can't wait, we should make a difference. It's all about behavioural change, it's all about habits. This campaign will change habits.

Becoming a 'Drop It' member means joining a group of visionary leaders that are making a difference and taking actions that will decide what our tomorrow will look like for generations to come, not only in the UAE but all over the world.

This is not the only anti-plastic campaign. This is in addition to a slew of environmental measures already in place by the municipality such as the highly popular push to reduce plastic bags.

The 'Drop It' campaign will also donate 5 per cent of all corporate memberships to funding a water project under the Charity Water umbrella to bring safe, drinking water to global communities in developing nations.

The campaign is already supported by a number of organisations that are based and operate in the UAE.

I am excited about the new campaign and expecting this campaign to help a lot in reducing plastic bottle consumption in Dubai. This is a very good start. I hope everyone  supports the campaign and work together to help reduce their use of plastic bottles.

As far as I and my family are concerned, we had stopped using plastic bottles 2 years ago when we installed water purification system to filter tap water thereby eliminating the need for daily/weekly plastic bottled water.

Source : Gulf News