Dubai's campaign to reduce plastic bags hailed

Dubai, April 26 (IANS/WAM) If you are in the UAE next month, and you go shopping and see a staff member of the Dubai Municipality approach you with a free jute bag, do not decline it, a UAE newspaper has said.

"It is not an optional goodie. In fact, it is a planet-saver. We can no longer afford to view the rustle of plastic bags in just about every area of our life as a functional sound. It is a sound that needs to be silenced," the Gulf News daily said in an editorial.

Dubai Municipality's campaign to reduce 500 million plastic bags in six months is a great step forward in this regard and each one of us needs to support it, it said.

Time and again, it has been established that plastic bags are extreme violators of the environment.

On land and in the sea, these man-made creations have been the cause of death and destruction of flora and fauna, it said.

"Every plastic bag declined at source is one more cleansing breath for the environment and by extension, for all of us. So, make a difference, say no to plastic," the daily added.

--IANS/WAM

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