The UAE is doing its bit to preserve Mother Nature and eco-friendly clearly seems to be the new mantra in the UAE. Recently, Emirates announced to go plastic-free by the end of the year and now, Carrefour, the giant retail chain in the UAE is doing its bit towards eliminating plastic usage. As an effort, the supermarket chain has now launched re-usable shopping bags. We are mighty impressed!
What’s It?
The next time you go to Carrefour, you don’t have to carry your own cloth bag. Wondering why? Well, the supermarket has now launched re-usable bags you can purchase every time you shop at Carrefour. In a bid to encourage customers to buy re-usable bags, supermarket has introduced a woven plastic reusable bag (AED 2.5), a canvas foldable bag (AED 9.5) and a heavy-duty juco bag (AED 10).
Recently, Carrefour signed the national pact for eliminating plastic packaging by 2025 and is very well living up to its promise. According to reports, over eight to twelve million tonnes of plastic gets thrown into the ocean every year. Now, that definitely calls for immediate action, doesn’t it? And what better way than giant corporations like Carrefour taking the lead.
In fact, some of the Carrefour outlets have also replaced plastic bags with re-usable cloth bags in the vegetable and fruits section. Meanwhile, Spinney’s has also pledged to do its bit towards eliminating plastic usage. However, we are awaiting any further developments or changes on the same.
What Else?
Recently, DXB announced its initiative to ditch plastics and switch to eco-friendly alternatives, starting January 2020. Following suite is the regional airline Emirates which is also on a drive to bid goodbye to plastics. The airline recently revealed that by the end of 2019, there will no plastic usage on board the aircraft.
In addition, the airlines added that in-flight purchases will be handed over to customers in a paper bag. The initiative is said to eliminate over 81.7 million single-use plastic items each year.
The airline also regularly collects feedback from the crew in order to minimize in-flight plastic usage. One of the initiatives also involved collecting plastic bottles which could then be recycled in Dubai. This also helped them eliminate about 150,000 plastic bottles each year.
That’s not all! Emirates has gone a step further and has now introduced eco-friendly thread blankets. The blankets are made of recycled plastic bottles. This way, the airline will be recycling over 88 million plastic bottles each year.