Dubai: Dubai’s campaign to spread awareness about plastic pollution took a new twist on this Earth Day. The emirate achieved a Guinness World Record by forming the longest line of plastic bottles, which is equivalent to over four and half times the height of Burj Khalifa.
The Guinness World Record attempt was done by the Environment Department or Dubai Municipality in partnership with Oasis Water, the civic body said in a press release on Sunday.
As many as 58,447 used bottles were collected from schoolchildren and other community members in a 10-day long drive. These 500ml bottles were then arranged in an area of 522 square metres along a line of 3,842.5 metres in the sports hall of Nad Al Hammar School, officials said.
World Earth Day is an annual event that aims to bring together communities to raise awareness on environmental issues and inspire one another to unite for the planet.
This year’s theme centres around putting an end to plastic pollution by encouraging the public to use less plastic, reuse more and recycle.
As stated by the Earth Day Network, “from poisoning and injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, from littering our beaches and landscapes to clogging our waste streams and landfills, the exponential growth of plastics is now threatening the survival of our planet.”
Ahead of the Earth Day activities, the Environment Department ran the plastic bottle collection drive, as collection boxes were delivered to schools, government entities and private companies to encourage them to contribute their used bottles to the event.
The drive aimed to demonstrate to the public how many plastic bottles we are really using as a community.
An estimated 299 million tonnes of plastics were globally produced in 2013, representing a four per cent increase over 2012, and the trend has been showing upward over the past years. In 2016, world plastics production totalled around 335 million tonnes.
Durability and slow degradation rate of plastic means it becomes a ‘long-lasting waste’.
Our tremendous attraction to plastic, coupled with an undeniable behavioural propensity of increasingly over-consuming, discarding, littering and thus polluting, has become a combination of lethal nature. Plastic breaks down into micro plastic and enters our food chain, officials highlighted.
Alya Al Harmoudi, director of Environment Department in Dubai Municipality, said that World Earth Day is a key event on the annual environmental calendar.
“The theme this year is extremely important, as education is central to the future fate of our planet,” she said.
“Plastic pollution is global and prevalent issue that must be urgently addressed. We want our community to know and understand that each and every one of them can be change-makers”. She added that “encouraging behavioural changes toward plastic use is crucial to a healthier environment.”
Tasnim Salem Al Falasi, Head of Environmental Awareness Section stressed the importance of a continued dialogue with the public.
“Environmental and climate issues cannot be overcome by any one entity and instead must be a combined effort of individuals, the community and organisations alike”.
She said half of the bottles used in the event will be sent for recycling at Tadweer Centre. “The other half will be used to make best out of waste objects and for awareness classes,” Al Falasi told Gulf News.
