Teen eco-warriors join hands to save Earth

Dubai: Amid apathy over reducing, reusing and recycling waste, a handful of Dubai teenagers are determined to bring about lifestyle changes that benefit the environment.

Among them is 17-year-old Bur Dubai resident Neeraja Sankar. Every Friday the Grade 12 student spends about an hour collecting plastic bags from neighbours in her apartment building, which she takes to a nearby recycling bin.

While stopping by their homes she takes a moment to chat about the disadvantages of using plastic bags and urges them to purchase jute bags or reusable ones.

The teenager, who goes to Our Own English High School, Dubai, is not paid for the service she provides and said it is often a thankless job.

"It"s simply my love for the earth that keeps me going," she said.

Sankar was motivated to embark on her recycling activities a year ago when she read about a recycling campaign run by the Art Of Living Foundation, an NGO set up by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Campaigns such as Gulf News" "No to Plastic Bags" and the Dubai Municipality"s "My Bag, My Earth" also spurred her into action.

Commenting on Gulf News" efforts Sankar said the campaign was helpful in telling citizens about the ill effects of plastic.

"The newspaper"s coverage tells us the reality of the situation and although I started recycling for this campaign, I now share the information I"ve read about when I speak to people about reducing and recycling their waste."

More recycling bins

Her school friends recently joined her efforts in collecting plastic waste. So far they have collected more than 100kg of plastic bags.

Encouraging people to change their habits has not been easy for the group. "In the beginning people were appreciative and supportive but as time went on, the support has waned."

Sankar said residents found it unhygienic to keep plastic waste for an entire week before she collected. "It"s not possible for me to collect it everyday and people end up putting their plastic in the garbage."

Nevertheless the teenager is trying to acquire more recycling bins for her neighbourhood so that residents would take the initiative to recycle their own waste.

Teenagers Seaon Shin and Ania Tarazi of Festival City and Wafi City have established a school-based environmental club, Ecubed (or e3), which stands for ‘Emancipating Everyone"s Earth".

The Deira International School, Dubai, students with some support from their teachers run several activities at their school that all aim to increase awareness about recycling.

"We have set up recycling bins at our schools that were sponsored by Oasis Paper Mills to encourage parents and students to think about the environment and make it easier for them to recycle," said Shin.

She added that small bins for plastic bottles and paper were also in classrooms at the school and a competition is held each month where the winning class gets thrown a pizza party.

The twosome has also conducted fundraisers to raise money for more recycling bins.

"Now we"re trying to branch out into Universal American School, (a sister school). We went there recently, told them what we are doing and gave them ideas about how they could also recycle and raise money."