Plastic, plastic everywhere

And not a place to spare

Choking Earth

Polluting Water, causing us to despair

Being a durable, lightweight, waterproof, inexpensive and a versatile material, the plastic is a preferred option widely used in packaging, in  construction industry, in manufacturing household goods and furniture, and even for medical equipment. The flexibility of its usage has led to its overconsumption, despite the fact that it takes 20 to 500 years for plastics to decompose. Moreover, in better off countries like UAE , the socio-economic factors and a culture of convenience shopping has led to an increased use of plastics, be it as plastic bags, plastic bottles or the plastic items. Geographically too, the abundance of petrochemicals, the raw material needed for plastic manufacturing, in this region has made it a booming industry. Fortunately, this pattern of overuse is slowly being broken.

Come 2024 and the UAE would completely ban the use of single-use plastic bags nationwide. Already beginning January this year the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai have discontinued their use. Since the launch of comprehensive plastic reduction policy in 2020, the consumption of single-use plastic bags has reduced by 95 percent. Statistically, it means 172 million of these bags have been prevented from impacting the environment, or 1000 tons of such bags have been eliminated from the production cycle. This is a whopping number by all accounts , and is likely to get better as the awareness sets in.

The environmental cost of plastics has made UAE government take a firm stand on the ways to reduce plastic in the country. Apart from its immunity to fast degradation and the propensity of choking up the landfills, it also has been the foremost cause of death of animals like camels. Reducing plastic augments well for the marine and coastal conservation too, as almost all the waste plastic and styrofoam in the world ends up in oceans, as “floating debris”, causing grave consequences for marine life and making water toxic. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment in UAE has launched an integrated programme to monitor plastic waste in oceans and water bodies of UAE. The UAE government is working diligently to align with UNSDGs and achieve them. A yearning to keep the environment safe also guides its policies.

The businesses and trading houses have joined the movement too. Most supermarkets offer in-store bag exchange option, where the residents can deposit their extra plastic bags for others to use. These reverse vending machines encourage the citizens to recycle and reuse plastic. 2023 January onwards a nominal price is also being charged by supermarkets for every plastic bag dispensed, and organic alternatives also offered.

For reducing the plastic waste generated in aviation industry., Emirates Airlines has undertaken a huge closed-loop recycling drive where all the plastic waste generated in their flights would be recycled, remade into needed stuff, and reused.

Besides this, focus is also on reducing the

use of plastic water bottles. UAE ranks fourth in the use of plastic water bottles. On an average, a UAE citizen uses 450 plastic water bottles in a year, which is quite high a number. To overcome this, water fountains, coolers and dispensers are being installed in areas of heavy traffic. Recycling of plastic water bottles into daily use items -clothing and furniture-has also begun to surface.

These measures may take sone time to deliver desired results but a beginning has been made to achieve them.