Use cloth bags, dump plastic

Plastic isn’t fantastic in the UAE. The compound has outlived its use and needs to be discarded in the country. And the message from authorities is clear: start binning it at shops or pay a small fee to use it for two years.

The sooner we start rejecting the material, the better for the environment and future generations.

Dubai’s decision, therefore, to charge 25 fils for plastic bags is a welcome first step in a long line of measures to come in two years’ time. This is part of the country’s plan to phase out the material that is clogging the soil and oceans, threatening animals and humans.

Abu Dhabi, in fact, set the ball rolling against plastic last month and Dubai’s levy on single-use plastic bags from July shows how serious the issue has become. Clean-up campaigns haven’t worked and are often expensive so countries are getting to the root of the environmental problem of industrial proportions: plastic.

In 2019, Dubai Airports said it would go plastic-free. Now the campaign against the material has been put on fast-forward mode as the danger is clear and present. Businesses have welcomed the move, so have residents.

Plastic was a considered a cheaper alternative, though it was less bio-biodegradable than natural and sustainable materials like paper and wood. The material was a product of the industrial lobby which saw it as a cheaper alternative to paper in the 1960s.

Till that happens it is the responsibility of every resident in the UAE and the world to do their bit. How? Carry reusable cloth bags for grocery shopping.