We are living in a plastic planet. Plastic pollution issues are growing exponentially every year as we are producing more than 300 million tons of plastic. Most of the plastics used are single-use which ends up in our oceans. This issue can be solved by educating and engaging everyone in a conversation to rethink plastic. 

Plastics are not our body's best friend. My campaign is to beat plastic pollution and put an end to single-use plastics. This has become an epidemic. Every year, we throw away enough plastic to circle the Earth four times. Much of that waste doesn?t make it into a landfill but instead ends up in our oceans, where it?s responsible for killing one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year. For the good of the planet, it?s time to rethink how we use plastic. More and more cosmetics contain microbeads. Tiny particles of plastic have been added to thousands of personal care cosmetic products (toothpaste, make-up, facial soaps etc.?). These microplastics are a hazard to our environment. These get washed down into our oceans and enter our food chain. Fish ingest microplastics and then we humans also end up eating it.

My campaign is an attempt to raise awareness among my schoolmates, classmates, and community about plastic pollution and their impact on humans and marine life. World Environment Day is not limited to just one day (June 5) but should be observed every day. It is also not just limited to cleaning beaches. It also involves deserts and other habitats across Abu Dhabi in order to ensure a safe, clean and healthy environment and to promote ecological awareness.

I am an Ambassador of Goumbook- Drop It Youth Campaign from February 2018 and raising awareness by doing pep-talks and presentations in my school and community. The objective of Drop It Youth Campaign is to raise awareness about single-use plastic pollution and encourage individuals and organizations to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions through simple everyday choices.

Let?s take an online pledge at www.dropityouth.org and make an environmental impact and help create a wave of change!

Rethink Plastic – Save our Seas!!!

Let?s try to #BeatPlasticPollution by following these simple and easy steps:

1.       Don?t use plastic straws, cups, plates, spoons and cutlery items

2.       Drink filtered tap water

3.       Carry your own cloth/jute/paper bags for shopping

4.       Choose and use reusable lunch boxes, coffee mugs, steel/glass water bottles

My commitment towards the 2018 WED theme 'Beat the Pollution' is to encourage the use of paper bags and cloth/jute bags in my community, school and wants to motivate more and more people to discard the use of plastics which is harmful not only to mankind but also to marine species. I am using my artistic talent to spread the message amongst my friends. I want to convince people to stop using single-use plastic bottles, cups, bags, and straws and to switch to filtered tap water as plastic pollution is not only impacting our waters (rivers, seas and oceans) and marine life, but also the human food chain and our overall health. 

I also innovated a robot and app, namely Marine Robot Cleaner and Plastic Cleaner App. The main objective of my robot was to collect wastes from floating water surfaces such as seas and oceans. The app was designed to send start and stop signals to my robot to start the cleaning process. I had presented my innovation at INNOVATOR 2018 and United Arab Emirates University and I am currently waiting for a grant proposal to have my innovations go live.

Let us all try to adhere to the great visionary, late Sheikh Zayed?s words, ?On land and in the sea, our forefathers lived and survived in this environment. They were able to do so because they recognized the need to conserve it, to take from it only what they needed to live, and to preserve it for succeeding generations."

 Happy World Environment Day 2018!!!