Uae Address Plastic Pollution

Posted 1 December 2020

The UAE has announced the ‘Drop It Campaign’ to raise awareness on the importance of conserving water and re-using plastic bottles to decrease plastic pollution.

Plastic pollution in the UAE is one of the greatest burdens on the environment.

The region has one of the highest rates of bottled water consumption in the world with each resident drinking on average of 250 liters of bottled water a year.

The environmental organization Goumbook, announced through their ‘Drop It Campaign’ that bottled water is not only harming the environment, it could also be harmful to your health.

Goumbook’s aim is to encourage the public and businesses to switch to drinking filtered tap water in reusable containers.

Antonelli Abella, the co-founder of Goumbook, stated;

“The amount of chemicals that are extracted into water from being in plastic that is exposed to movement and heat and is known to cause health problems.”

The chemical released in plastic bottles is called bisphenol A (BPA) and recently the Food and Drug Administration in the US has banned this chemical in baby bottles.

Ms. Antonelli Abella emphasized that if the public is not concerned with said health risks of BPA then maybe the environmental effects the plastic is having should change people's minds.

The Consequences…

Earlier this year, thirteen sperm whales were found stranded on shores around the North sea, and the autopsies showed that their stomachs were full of plastic, causing them to starve and suffer heart failure.

They were believed to have been shifted in storms from the Atlantic as they were all severely underweight.

Rob Deaville, Project Manager for the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP) said;

“…I have never dealt with anything like this in 20 years.”

Scientists believe man-made pollutions are to blame.

You do the maths….

Last year in the UAE alone:

a staggering 768.1 million water bottles were consumed.
Prices of bottled water are up to 1,000 more than the cost of tap water due to branding.
80% of water bottles are not recycled.
It takes 3 litres of water and 1/2 litre of oil to produce a 1-litre plastic bottle
It can take up to 1,000 years for plastic bottles to degrade.
54% of the 120 marine mammal species on the threatened list have been observed entangled or ingesting plastic.

Mohammad Al Noori, Director of Partnership Development with Dubai Municipality said he was excited about the ‘Drop It Campaign’ and he expects local governments to work closely with Goumbook to reduce plastic bottle consumption in the emirate.

The ‘Drop It Campaign’ will also donate 5% 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.

Our environment is very precious and is speedily becoming more and more so with damaging human effects, causing safety concerns and health fears.

If you would like your organisation to be more familiar with relevant Health & Safety topics, for example, Environmental Awareness, then get in touch with us today. We will be more than happy to suggest which of our solutions would suit you best.