Volunteers collect 8.5 tons of trash in Clean up Arabia campaign
Volunteers clear up 8.5 tons of trash during campaign
Dubai: Volunteers collected 8.5 tons of trash during the Clean Up Arabia campaign held over two successive weekends in four emirates and four Gulf countries.
The clean up organized by Emirates Diving Association (EDA) in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme's regional office of West Asia and backed by both the Australian “Clean Up the World'' campaign and the USA-based International Coastal Cleanup of The Ocean Conservancy, covered a total distance of 12 kilometers of beach and underwater areas.
Nearly 50 percent of the rubbish was beverage-related plastic, bottles, cans and lids although plastic bottles were the main contributor to the tones of waste found.
According to The Ocean Conservancy's Marine Debris Guide plastic bottles will take 450 years before decomposing while the glass bottles prove the most harmful, lasting 1 million years.
Some strange items picked up underwater by the volunteers include a solar panel and a football in Abu Dhabi and a mattress in one of the breakwater areas of Dibba Port.
More than 1000 people and members took part in the clean up at various sites including Fujairah, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, Musandam, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.
“Year after year Clean Up Arabia just keeps on growing in terms of participants and countries being covered. We are quite pleased with the turn out this year and will continue to spearhead this worthwhile endeavor to spread awareness about the protection and conservation of our marine environment,'' said Ibrahim Al-Zu'bi, EDA Environmental Advisor.
