Recently, a group of students representing the Verte Club at St Joseph's School, Abu Dhabi, organised and conducted a ‘No Plastic' campaign.
The main aim of this campaign was to reform the lifestyles of people who excessively use plastic.
The students tried to make them aware of the threat that plastic bags present to our world.
We chose one of the busiest malls in Abu Dhabi — Khalidia Mall — as the venue for our campaign. We were then able to directly influence shoppers to minimise the use of plastic bags and also handed out free biodegradable bags — a viable alternative to plastic.
There was also a demonstration by nine-year-old Abdul Mugeeth, who has gained the moniker of ‘paper bag boy' for his efforts to reduce plastic bag usage.
He demonstrated how to make bags, envelopes and toys out of old newspapers and inspired a lot of children, who were attracted to his innovative ideas. Many of them said they would go back home and try to make similar paper bags.
We conducted three sessions, each attended by about 100 people. We concluded the campaign by sharing the fact that such drives would only be successful if people raised awareness together.
Our campaign would be even more successful if larger sections of the community became aware of the ill effects of plastic.
The reader is the event coordinator of Verte Club in St. Joseph's School, Abu Dhabi
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