Plastics continue to mount on beaches

MUSCAT, JULY 21 - Amid repeated calls for ban on use of plastic in the Sultanate, its use is increasing unabated. Members of an NGO engaged in cleaning up the beaches said they collected more plastic waste last month compared to the previous months. “We realised during our cleaning operation that the use of plastic bags has increased considerably in the recent past,” said Ammu Raveendran, a volunteer of Oman and Clean Beaches. The permanent damage caused by plastic waste to the environment has been a matter of global attention as more than one million birds, 100,000 mammals, sea turtles and countless number of fish die each year because of plastic waste as the earth is getting further polluted day by day.

According to Environment Society of Oman (ESO), oceans are getting polluted with plastics which make their way into the sea and are then ingested by sea turtles, sea birds and other marine life causing suffocation or starvation. Oman is one of the few countries with large coastline and pristine beaches. Beach clean-up by volunteers and NGOs is happening everywhere from time to time but that doesn’t mean, we can continue to spoil our beaches round the year, according to the volunteers. “We must have policies in place which cater to creating awareness at large, from penalising the offenders to educating the youth, and from asking the water bottling plants and dairy companies to start using glass bottles and supermarkets to discard plastic bags,” a British volunteer said.

He feels that smaller items made out of plastic are more dangerous as it is very easy to dispose them in a garbage bin and then into landfills. These plastic cutlery, cloth pins, straws and ear buds are more than what we can imagine as they contribute to the increasing plastic waste. Oman and Clean Beaches is planning to submit a mass memorandum to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs this week. The memorandum urges launch of awareness programmes and campaigns in schools, and children should work towards the protection of environment through different art and craft projects.

It also urges the ministry to give grades to schools for matching the criterion, exhibition of visuals in theatres and TV channels. The memorandum suggests that industrial areas be maintained, municipality issue circulars giving timelines to clean the area outside their establishment and launch clean-up drives in industrial areas. Finally, get the poultry farms to take back the packaging through supermarkets, and mushroom suppliers, milk and yoghurt suppliers to take back and reuse the packaging.

Other suggestions are:

1. Most important is to be able to separate the waste at source, such as to provide different coloured bins to every household and issue guidelines for proper use. There are several examples in different countries for waste management.

2. The waste from beach clean-up to be stored in a different place until the recycling plant for nylon is in place. 3. The waste paper generated from offices, schools and ministries to be processed separately. 4. Start the policy of handing down books in schools instead of supplying new books every year which is possible to start with international schools.

Recommendations 1. Plant as many trees as possible and make planting trees a part of life. 2. This Renaissance day, let every individual plant one sapling, organisations can come forward.

3. While allocating lands as residence area, it should be made mandatory to keep a certain area as park in every locality. 4. Both municipality and the Ministry of Environment are ready to give saplings, schools should take it up as a project for the secondary schoolchildren to plant trees within the school premises, outside the compound walls and water them.

5. Polyclinics, government colleges and other establishments and every household should compulsorily plant trees to get the final permit from the Ministry.

Ban in commercial sector: Achieving complete ban on plastic in commercial establishments can be implemented in stages. Implementing jute bags and paper bags is the foremost step in making Oman plastic-free as majority of these carry bags end up in our ocean.

“Import of plastic bags should be banned from a certain date, so that we are only looking at the disposal of what exists at the moment”, said Shijas, one who works for a plastic free Oman said.

“Plastic straws should be banned completely. We need to look at it itemwise and then control as we cannot apply controls without having eco-friendly alternatives. Also, there should be a total ban on bringing in plastic in any form into the country. The national carrier, Oman Air can take the lead and go plastic free and then we can ask all airlines to take back their plastic waste into their own countries”, adds Shijas, who studied the anti-plastic measures in other countries.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA), as part of its various measures towards creating awareness on cutting down on plastic waste and to encourage the establishment of plastic recycling firms, has launched the ‘Best Environmental Initiative Award for Reducing Plastic Pollution’ contest under the auspices of Najeeb bin Ali al Rawas, Under-Secretary, MECA.