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Building on the successful session held in March earlier this year, Borouge, the leading provider of innovative, value creating plastics solutions in the UAE, hosted in cooperation with the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) the 2nd Plastics Sustainability Roundtable in Abu Dhabi on September 9, 2013. The one-day event focused on the importance of sustainable plastics waste management practices in the Emirate.
The roundtable discussions were enriched with the participation of the Ministry of Environment & Water, Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council, Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, Centre of Waste Management - Abu Dhabi, Masdar, the Petroleum Institute and Abu Dhabi University. Presentations where provided by Dr. Abdulwahab Al Sadoun, Secretary General of the GPCA, Craig Halgreen, Borouge Vice President Global Communications and Dr. Martin Engelmann, Advocacy Director & Director of Resource Efficiency at Plastics Europe, who specifically provided an insight into the strategies being adopted across Europe to ensure sustainable waste management practices are embedded in society.
The major topics of the roundtable focused on the challenges and opportunities for plastics waste management, plastics litter and societal behaviour, conventional plastic bags versus alternative solutions and the valuable contribution of plastics to sustainability.
The irresponsible disposing of plastic waste and in particular plastic bags into the environment is one of the critical problems that the industry, government and environmental organisations are striving to resolve within the UAE.
Plastics producers believe that people should be encouraged to reduce their consumption of plastic bags, by reusing again-and-again strong, reusable polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) non-woven fibre plastic bags, and is concerned that oxo-biodegradable plastic bags may contaminate waste streams and cause problems to the recycling process of plastics. The industry cautions that oxo-biodegraadable plastic bags may encourage indiscriminate littering into the environment as society incorrectly believes they will totally disintegrate within a very short space of time.
The presenters highlighted the need to debate the right solutions to address plastics waste management issues and support awareness initiatives about the benefits of plastics and the importance of segregating and recycling consumer and post-consumer waste. They public should be more aware about the dangers of littering on land, air and marine life and adopt more sustainable environmentally-friendly approaches to disposing of their waste.
Statistics reveal that the UAE has one of the highest per capita waste generation rates in the world. About 12 million tonnes of waste are generated in Abu Dhabi alone and currently more than 75% of that waste ends up in landfills that are harmful to the environment.