Abu Dhabi, October 24: The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has extended full support to the plastic bags campaign, initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Water.
Gayatri Raghwa, a specialist programme developer in environmental education at EAD, said “this is a very welcome move, but needs to be done carefully.” “We certainly support the Ministry’s campaign, which I think it is very thoughtfully designed. It stretches until 2013, when plastic bags will be banned. This means that there is enough time to phase the campaign and introduce the concept gradually,” she said.
Raghwa believes that the only way the campaign would work is if it is done in phases and runs parallel with a large-scale awareness campaign about plastic bags and why they are harmful.
Biodegradable bags are more expensive and they have to be introduced to the public gradually. Major supermarkets, the largest consumer of plastic bags, are already selling the larger, stronger biodegradable bags.
Depending on the type of plastic bags, they take between 500 to 700 years to disintegrate and EAD has been campaigning about the harm of plastic, including bags, regularly.
EAD will soon publish a bilingual brochure about plastic bags and plastic in general, to raise ever more awareness about the issue.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi residents from different nationalities said that the Emirate must follow the policy of Ajman in enforcing plastic ban at the earliest.
Ajman will become the first in the UAE to ban plastic bags from January 2010 making the emirate completely free of plastic bags.
Minja Janika from Finland who was shopping at Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi, said, “In our country it is completely banned so we carry a basket and fabric bags along with us while going out to shop. I still have with me a cloth bag. If people get accustomed to carry jute and fabric bags it would be a big help to the environment.”
Emirati businessman Majid Sultan said, “We are one entity, if any good move comes from anywhere all emirates of the country must follow it. So not only the Abu Dhabi government but all emirates should support environment-related initiatives to ban plastic bags.”
Rebhi Yahya Ali from Palestine, who has been living in Abu Dhabi for 23 years said, “A number of camels, sheep and goats die every year because of these plastic bags which are thrown in deserts. In plastic you can preserve fruits and vegetables for maximum of two days, but in fabric bag you can keep them till ten days,” Ali said.
Dr More Chakane, researcher from South Africa, said, “Plastic bags are a hazard to wild and domestic animals, and cause a visual pollution of the environment.
South Africa banned thinner plastics bags and imposed levies on thicker ones in May 2003. The results are amazing. Within six months of the ban the South African environment including open fields and spaces, home yards, sporting stadiums and public transport were amazingly and visibly clean.
–Agencies